


The Case of the Dying Flower

by chiiyo86



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Forced Proximity, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Murder Mystery, Pining, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-08-25 09:35:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 72,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16658681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiiyo86/pseuds/chiiyo86
Summary: It's not that Nico has been avoiding Percy for the past two years, of course not. It's just that he doesn't like to be reminded of the stupid crush he had on him when he was younger. So when Percy seeks him out with the message that the goddess Aphrodite wants to see both of them, Nico is less than enthusiastic. Before he knows it, he finds himself forcibly bonded to Percy and they're sent on a strange quest: solving a murder that happened thousands of years ago and whose primary suspects are gods.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic ignores part of the _The Blood of Olympus_ ending (what part will be quickly obvious) and the entirety of the _Trials of Apollo_ series. Enjoy!

Nico dodged a monstrous paw and plunged left, aiming for the hellhound’s other leg. He managed a slash that caused the monster to yelp in pain, the sound akin to the honking of a foghorn. Nico rolled headfirst between the hellhound’s legs and sprang to his feet, standing right under the dog’s belly. He thrust his sword upward, holding it with both hands for maximum strength, and winced when monster dust rained all over him. The Stygian metal of his sword throbbed a sinister purple, hungry for more. _I guess I’ll just have to oblige you._

A bark loud enough to awake the dead resounded behind Nico’s back and he whirled around to face the other hellhound. Its two red eyes glowed malevolently and the beast was foaming at the mouth, with drool dripping from its chops and making a sizzling sound when it touched the ground. Nico curled his hands around the hilt of his sword, holding the weapon in front of him, waiting for the hound to attack. The beast growled again; hellhounds generally deferred to Nico as a child of the Underworld, but hellhound rabies was a bitch—bad pun unintended. 

Nico locked eyes with the beast. The air was hot and dry, and sweat made his dark t-shirt cling to the skin of his back. The alleyway where he and the monster were facing each other smelled like garbage and stale urine. Nico shifted a foot to improve his stance. When the hellhound pounced, he swerved right to avoid several hundred pounds of solid muscle and crazy slamming into him, then spun and slashed with his sword. The hellhound was faster than the other one and Nico heard jaws snap like scissors, barely an inch from his head. He grabbed the shadows cast by the dustbins lined against the brick wall and pulled them to him, melting into the ink-like darkness. A whisper of cold, and he popped out on the other side of the hound. It growled in frustration and launched itself at Nico, who shadow-traveled again. There was a calculated risk to it: the hellhound could shadow-travel too, but in the narrow alley and given its massive size, it wouldn’t do it much good if it did. Nico was smaller and had more room to maneuver, which hopefully would help him counter the hound’s much greater strength. 

Multiple slashes and cuts progressively drained the hellhound, infuriating him in the process. It howled and growled, slashing the air with its paws. Getting tired too, Nico wasn’t quick enough to avoid the back of one and it sent him slamming into a wall. He tumbled and regained his balance just in time to see the hellhound’s paw come at him. 

“Whoa!”

Nico dropped to his knees and felt chips of brick bounce off his head. The beast’s fetid breath almost made him gag, so he stopped breathing and rolled out of its way. 

“This is getting tiresome,” he muttered, wiping sweat off his brow.

When the hellhound tried to bite his head off again, this time Nico didn’t dodge, summoning instead a shield of shadow to protect himself. The hound was so close that its hot breath surrounded him like a cloud. Right as he summoned the shield Nico thrust his sword arm, ramming his sword into the beast’s throat. The weapon glowed as it absorbed the monster’s essence and the dust floated down until it rested as a fine layer over the ground. Nico exhaled slowly, his body protesting as aches and weariness settled with the ebb of adrenaline. His stamina had improved considerably over the years, but using shadows still tired him more than mere physical effort. 

He sheathed back his sword at his side, the blade immaculate as every drop of blood had been absorbed by the midnight-black metal. His father wouldn’t have to worry anymore about the rabid hellhounds that had escaped the Underworld. Nico turned his face to the blue sky, closing his eyes to enjoy the warmth of the sun on his skin. Where should he go now? He could go back to the Underworld, but he’d been there for the past month and he had to admit that he’d missed sunlight. He wasn’t far from Camp Jupiter, to think of it. And it was July, which made it an ideal time to visit. He had surely enough juice left in him for a jump.

Nico tried to shake off the monster dust and brick dust from his hair and clothes, but despite his best efforts he probably still looked like he’d dragged himself on the ground. Since he couldn’t do much about it without a shower and a change of clothing, he merely gave his hair a perfunctory finger-comb and stepped into the shadows. 

He stepped out of the shade on the porch of a barrack, startling the two campers playing cards there. 

“What in Tartarus—” one of them exclaimed, falling off his chair. 

The other was Dakota, who handled the surprise a lot more gracefully. “Hey, Nico,” he said. “Hazel is—”

The door flung open and Hazel appeared. “Nico! You’re here.”

“Hey,” Nico said.

He wasn’t surprised that Hazel had known he was there—she and Nico generally had a sense of each other’s presence when they weren’t too far apart—but there was something about her expression that made him wary. She wasn’t smiling at him as broadly as she usually would and she hadn’t moved for a hug. 

“Come,” she said, grabbing his arm. “Reyna wants to see you.”

“O-okay.”

She dragged away him from the barrack, and as they walked Nico heard the camper he didn’t know ask Dakota, “Who’s that guy?”

“This is Nico di Angelo,” Dakota said. “He’s Hazel’s brother.”

“Brother?” the other guy said incredulously. “Really?”

“On the god side. He’s a son of Hades.”

The other guy replied something but Nico was too far now to hear him. He and Hazel walked along Via Praetoria, past the animation of the shops. A tremor ran along the crowd of Lares that always hung around camp and some of them gave Nico a wide berth as he walked by; they didn’t like that he could touch them, and Nico could feel the distrust roll off them in waves. _Graecus,_ he heard a few of them whisper. In theory, Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter were at peace with each other since the end of the war against Gaia two years ago, but Nico knew better than anyone how the dead could be set in their ways.

Hazel wasn’t talking, though she swept quick glances at Nico when she thought he wasn’t looking. She was nibbling her lower lip as if she was unsure about something and her nervousness was slowly getting to Nico.

They were coming into view of the dazzling whiteness that was the _principia_ when Nico finally had enough. “What’s going on?” he asked his sister. “I would have gone to see Reyna anyway. What’s so urgent?”

Hazel stopped dead, giving him a considering look. “Okay, I think it might be best for you to walk in there with a warning. Percy’s here. He’s the one who needs to see you.”

“What?”

“Percy is with Reyna at the principia. He arrived yesterday and he wants to talk to you about something.”

“About what?” Words were coming out of Nico’s mouth but he felt as though he were hearing someone else talk.

“I don’t know.” She looked at him for another long moment, then seemed to come to a decision. “I know you’ve been avoiding Percy for the past couple of years. That’s why Reyna didn’t want me to tell you why she was summoning you. She was afraid you’d bolt.”

“I’m not avoiding Percy,” Nico said automatically. 

Hazel gave him a wry smile. “You think I haven’t noticed that you only visit during the school holidays? And you keep to the camp; you almost never go to New Rome.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Almost as if you were afraid of bumping into someone. So it was easy to conclude that you were avoiding Percy, or Annabeth. Or both.”

Nico opened his mouth, trying to deny it, but nothing came out. His overuse of his powers was catching up with him and his head swam with exhaustion, his bruised side where he’d hit the wall during his fight aching fiercely. He was nowhere near clear-headed enough to deal with—

_Percy Jackson, son of the sea god. Hero of the Second Titan War, one of the seven prophesied heroes in the war against Gaia._

“Nico,” Hazel said, her tone serious. “Did something happen with Percy? Did he—do or say something that made you—”

“No, no, he—”

“Because Percy is a good friend,” she said, clasping both his arms. Her eyes shone like burnish gold. “But you’re family.”

It took Nico a minute to figure out what she meant—that as much as she liked Percy, she would stand by Nico in case of an argument between the two of them.

“Nothing happened,” Nico said gently, extracting himself from her grasp but taking her hand to give it a squeeze. “It’s fine. I’ll talk with Percy. It’s no problem.”

They weren’t far from the _principia_ but in the short time it took them to get there, a thousand thoughts had flashed through Nico’s mind. He hadn’t seen Percy in two years. How was he supposed to act? Hostile? No, hostility would make Percy want to find out what he’d done wrong and how he could fix it. Better aim for casual indifference. Hades, why shouldn’t he act indifferent, anyway? The feelings—the _childish crush_ he’d had on Percy was a thing of the past. He’d been, what, twelve, thirteen at the height of it? He was sixteen now, old enough to know it for what it had been: hero worship from a lost, confused kid who was figuring out his sexuality. _Right, because you sure have it all figured out, now,_ a sardonic voice whispered at the back of his mind.

Why did Percy want to talk to him? Nico couldn’t wrap his mind around that part. It couldn’t be that Percy wanted to catch up, or he could have done that any time over the past two years. If he needed help, then there were plenty of powerful, competent people in his social circle he was closer to than to Nico. Had something happened? Had Camp Half-Blood been attacked? Nico had never felt at home there, but still he felt his heart start beating faster at the thought. But no, if that had happened Hazel would know about it and she would have told him.

_What, then? What do you want, Percy? Can’t you leave me alone?_

They were standing in front of the columned portico of the _principia_. Nico shoved his hands in his pockets so they wouldn’t grab for his sword.

“Do you want me to come in with you?” Hazel asked.

 _I love you,_ Nico thought. “No, I’m fine,” he said. “I’m sure you have a lot to do.”

Hazel looked at him doubtfully, but after a moment she nodded. “You know where to find me,” she said before walking away.

Left alone, Nico took a deep breath and entered the building. He heard Percy’s voice before he saw him: “...yeah, that’s what I think too.”

Reyna was sitting behind her desk at the center of the room. The other high-back chair next to hers was empty; Frank’s duties must have taken him elsewhere. Percy was leaning against the edge of the desk, almost sitting on it with that casual lack of decorum that he always wore effortlessly. He was angled toward Reyna, but he turned to face the entrance when Nico came in. 

“Oh, hey, Nico,” he said, smiling. 

He was taller than the last time Nico had seen him, a little broader in the shoulders too. His face and arms were colored with an early July tan, making the green in his eyes stand out. His dark hair looked like he’d just walked through a gust of wind. He wore the usual Camp Half-Blood outfit—orange t-shirt, clay-beads necklace, faded jeans.

“Yeah,” Nico said stupidly. His mouth was too dry but his hands were sweaty, as if all the moisture in his body had migrated there. He fiddled with his skull ring, caught himself doing it and made an effort to stop. “Hello. Hey, Reyna. You wanted to see me?”

Reyna gave him an uncomfortably perceptive look. “Yes,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “Well, in fact, Percy here wanted to see you.”

Percy’s smile faded and he became serious. “Yeah, I know you’re busy and that you don’t like to—” His mouth pursed, a vaguely displeased expression. “—be disturbed. But we didn’t really have a choice.”

“Is everything okay at Camp Half-Blood?”

“Oh yeah, don’t worry. It’s not world-ending stuff—at least it doesn’t look like it. Just, you know, normal, troubling demigod stuff.”

“Yeah?”

“Won’t you come closer? I’ll be easier to talk,” Percy said, and that was when Nico realized that he was still standing at the door, like an unexpected guest waiting to be admitted.

He wanted to say that they could talk just fine like that, but that would be silly. He forced himself to walk the distance that separated him from Reyna’s desk and Percy. 

“Okay,” he said, and it was another effort to be able to look Percy right in the eye. “Can you tell me what’s going on, now?”

“Last week, campers from Aphrodite cabin got a little message from their mother.”

“A message?”

“Yeah, in a shower of pink sparkles and everything. I leave it to you to imagine how close to imploding the Aphrodite cabin has come. They were kind of disappointed, though, when the message simply said that the goddess wanted to meet with you and me for some ‘urgent matter,’ whatever that means.”

“ _Aphrodite_ wants to meet the two of us,” Nico repeated.

The idea turned Nico’s stomach. Oh, this _had_ to be a joke. Nico had very bad memories of his encounter with Aphrodite’s son Cupid, and that made him leery of the goddess even though he’d never met her. 

“Could this be a fake?”

Percy shrugged. “The Aphrodite campers were positive this was their mother, although most of them have never met her. But Piper thinks so too.”

“Was there a date and a place of meeting in the message?”

“No, but I figured that I would take you to camp and wait there for another message or a sign, or something. Sorry,” Percy added unexpectedly. “I know this is all a pain to you. But when a god summons you, it’s not wise to ignore it.”

“Because you’re so very wise,” Nico said, which made Percy laugh.

“Yeah, well,” he said. “I’m all mature and stuff now. I can vote!”

“What a scary thought,” Nico said, deadpan.

Percy laughed again. Nico wanted to sit down, maybe have a nap, but there were no chairs in the _principia_ other than the ones reserved for the praetors. Frank wouldn’t care if Nico high-jacked his chair, but Reyna was big on protocol.

“Sooo,” Percy said. “Are you coming?”

“Right now?”

“No, of course not. Take your time to—” Percy waved with his hand at Nico, who looked down at himself and saw that his t-shirt was still grey with hellhound dust. “But when you’re ready?”

Nico sighed. “I don’t think I have a choice. A goddess has summoned me, apparently.”

“Okay, cool. Cool.”

The tips of Nico’s ears grew hot as Percy kept staring at him for some reason. There was nothing fascinating about his face, except for the dust in his hair and the scratches on the side of his jaw.

“Percy,” Reyna said, “do you mind if I talk with Nico alone for a few minutes?”

“Sure,” Percy said, pushing away from the desk. “I’ll go see my buddies from the Fifth Cohort.”

Once he was sure that Percy was gone, Nico gave Reyna a narrow-eyed glare, waiting for her to make some kind of comment about the situation. In some ways she knew him better than anyone, maybe even better than Hazel—or at least she knew things about him that Hazel didn’t. He didn’t mind it too much because he knew things about her, too.

“You look tired,” she said at last.

“I’m just coming back from a fight with two hellhounds.”

“Are you injured?” she asked, frowning.

“Nothing that won’t heal well enough on its own.”

She eyed him up and down, and appeared to be satisfied with her examination because she switched topics. “You hadn’t seen Percy since the end of the war, had you?”

Nico scowled. “Why does it matter? I’m over him. You know that.”

“I actually don’t know that. We’ve never talked about it.”

This was true. Reyna knew what she did because of their shared experiences shadow-travelling together two years ago, not because Nico had opened up to her about it. He’d appreciated her not broaching the subject and didn’t care for the fact that she was mentioning it now.

“He’s a very good-looking guy,” she said in that matter-of-fact way of hers. “When he was in Camp Jupiter I made a move on him.”

“What, really?”

“When he became praetor, it seemed to make sense to become partners in a romantic sense as well.”

Nico felt his lips twitch, but he managed to quell a smile. “So much sense, yeah.”

“Of course, he refused me. But I can still acknowledge that he hasn’t gotten any less good-looking.”

Nico let out a breath, kneading the muscles between neck and shoulder with a hand. He was so tense, but Reyna was right. He was stupid to get himself worked up. Yeah, Percy was still every bit as hot two years later—and so what? The world was full of hot people. Things would only be awkward if Nico made them.

“Yeah,” he said in an exhale. “If Percy asks for me, tell him I’m going to the baths. I need to clean up before I can go.”

“I’ll tell him.” 

Nico had turned toward the door when Reyna called him back. “Nico,” she said. “It’ll be fine.”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”

\---

Nico leaned his back against the edge of the pool, sighing through his nose and closing his eyes. The hot water felt wonderful and his aching body slowly relaxed, letting go of the tensions accumulated during the day. He heard bare feet slap against the marble floor and a voice said, “What’s up?” It was followed by the sound of a body getting into the water. Nico felt the ripples flutter against him and he kept his eyes tightly shut. The baths separated girls from boys, but that didn’t really help Nico, now, did it? Everyone wore swimsuits here, but that didn’t quiet the weird paranoia that someone would see his eyes linger inappropriately and wonder.

Nico breathed deeply, trying to recover the previous feeling of calm. Unfortunately, that train of thoughts had summoned the memory of Percy being there and of that meeting with Aphrodite. What did the goddess want with them? Why him and _Percy_? The sound of Percy’s laughter from earlier played in Nico’s mind over and over, like that record his mother had loved that had a scratch on it. Nico slapped a wet hand over his face, cursing under his breath. Well, there went his peace of mind. If he couldn’t relax then he might as well clean up quickly and find Percy. 

So that was what he did; he washed up, got his clothes back from the Lar that laundered them while campers were in the baths, and then went looking for Percy so they could leave. He found him on the porch of one of the Fifth Cohort barracks, chatting with Hazel, Dakota and a few others. The discussion was animated and punctuated with laughter, and Nico lingered a bit at a distance, hesitating to get closer. The mood tended to cool when he was around. Hazel caught sight of him and waved, giving him no choice.

“Nico, come on!”

Nico came up to the porch, trying to look like a guy who could just join any conversation. Other than Hazel, Percy and Dakota there were three other campers, two girls and one guy. He’d seen the guy before—a short, over-excitable boy with spiky pink hair—but couldn’t remember his name, as well as one of the girls, who was called Haley and was a legacy of Apollo with no particular power. He didn’t know the other girl, dark-skinned and short-haired, her purple Camp Jupiter t-shirt a little too big for her.

“I’m ready to go if you are,” Nico said to Percy after a terse word of greeting addressed to the group. “Unless you’d rather chat a little longer—”

“No, it’s fine,” Percy said, getting to his feet. “It’s been nice seeing you guys,” he told the group.

“Say hello to Annabeth for me,” Hazel said.

Percy’s eyebrow twitched. “Will do.”

Percy and Nico walked side-by-side for a few minutes, walking up Via Principalis, which cut through the neat rows of barracks. Glancing around, Nico checked that there was no one too close to them. He stopped and turned to Percy.

“Let’s go, then,” he said, holding out a hand.

Percy looked at the hand as if he didn’t know what the appendage was for. “Uh, what do you want me to do?”

“Take my hand so we can shadow-travel,” Nico said impatiently. “I thought we were going to Camp Half-Blood.”

“Oh, right. Well, yes, we’re going to camp, but _I_ can’t blip through hundreds of miles, so I came here with Blackjack.”

Nico felt his face heat up; he hadn’t considered the small matter of how Percy had gotten here. “Can’t Blackjack go back on his own? You know pegasi don’t like me too much.”

“Blackjack has carried you before, hasn’t he?” Percy studied him for a few seconds. “And you seem tired. Are you sure you’re up for shadow-travelling that far?”

“I’m more powerful now,” Nico said stubbornly, but in truth he wasn’t sure he could do it without risking both himself and Percy. Camp Half-Blood was all the way across the continent and he _was_ exhausted. “Okay, sure, let’s go on pegasus. Whatever.”

Blackjack was grazing next to the main gates, but when they approached he lifted his head and whinnied, as if greeting them.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re going back,” Percy said to whatever the pegasus had told him. “Don’t be a jerk.”

“Are we—” Nico was suddenly realizing something and it made the blood in his veins run cold. “Are we both going to ride him?”

“Well, yes.” Percy patted the pegasus’ neck. “I didn’t know whether I would find you. But don’t worry, Blackjack can carry both of us without any trouble. Can’t you, buddy?” Blackjack whinnied again and bumped his head against Percy’s shoulder. “Of course you do.”

“Okay, but—”

“You’ve ridden a pegasus before, haven’t you?”

“Not in a long time. I shadow-travel everywhere.”

“It’s the easiest thing in the world. All you have to do is to hold on to me.”

 _That’s precisely what I’m worried about._ “Okay,” Nico said. “How long is the ride going to be?”

“A few hours. Just tell me if you need a break. We’re not in _that_ much of a hurry.”

“Let’s just go,” Nico said curtly. “We’re wasting daylight.”

Percy jumped on Blackjack’s back with annoying ease, then held out a hand to help Nico on. Every fiber of Nico’s being screamed at him to ignore it and climb on his own, and he spent a few seconds just staring at the black trident tattooed inside Percy’s forearm from the brief time he’d joined the Legion. He had to tell himself that trying and making a fool of himself would be much worse before he accepted the offered hand. Blackjack stayed remarkably still through the process and kept placidly chewing grass. Once he was seated Nico shifted restlessly, trying to find a comfortable position; the pegasus wore no saddle, and he knew from experience that after a few hours’ ride his butt and the insides of his thighs would be killing him.

“Hold on to me, Nico,” Percy said, twisting around to look at him. “Otherwise you’ll fly right off his back.”

Nico gritted his teeth, hating everything and everyone, but mostly himself for his inability to be casual about the situation. He gingerly circled his arms around Percy’s torso, trying to keep as much distance he could between his front and Percy’s back.

“You can hold me tighter,” Percy said laughingly, and Nico had a furious urge to shove him off the pegasus. “I’m not gonna break.”

“Are we leaving or not?” he snapped. 

“All right, all right,” Percy said. “Heard him, buddy? It’s time to go.”

Blackjack took off and Nico was forced to cling harder to Percy then, but as soon as they were high in the air and the pegasus had reached his cruising speed, he reestablished a chaste few inches of air between their two bodies. It would have been so easy to lean against Percy, though. It was a continuous temptation. Nico’s day was weighing on him and there was something solid and dependable about the broad back in front of him.

They rode in silence for the first hour. Sometimes Percy chuckled or groaned, probably in response to something the pegasus had said telepathically to him. Nico never asked him to share the joke. At other times, Nico thought that behind the ever-present hiss of the wind in his ears, he could hear Percy take a breath in that sharp way that preceded speech, but he never ended up saying anything. Nico couldn’t blame him, since he wasn’t encouraging conversation either. What could he say to Percy? Asking him how he was doing seemed trite, even though Nico really did want to know. It wasn’t as if he wanted Percy to be unhappy; it wasn’t Percy’s fault if Nico was screwed up. _Did you think about me sometimes?_ Nico bit the inside of his cheek as self-punishment for that thought. He was _not_ going down that road again.

Past the first hour it got difficult to keep himself upright. He leaned more and more against Percy, to the point that his chin almost rested on Percy’s shoulder. He could feel the movement of Percy’s ribcage as he breathed, slow and steady, and Percy’s skin smelled like the ocean. Nico’s eyelids drooped and he blinked rapidly, fighting sleep. 

“So, where have you been for the past two years?”

The sound of Percy’s voice pierced through Nico’s haze of sleepiness and startled him. He straightened up, jerking himself away at the same time, and one of his hands slipped down Percy’s torso. When Nico felt the bump of Percy’s belt under his t-shirt, he had a moment of black panic and tried to pull away completely.

“Whoa, Nico!” A firm hand caught Nico’s wrist and kept it in place. “You’re not trying to jump off Blackjack, are you?”

Nico wanted to reply something biting, but his brain was still a little muddled. “I think I was falling asleep.” He almost had to yell in Percy’s ear to make sure he was heard. “You startled me, that’s all.”

“Oh. Sorry!” Percy yelled back.

“I’m awake, now. What were you saying?”

“Oh, just.” Percy mumbled something that was too faint for Nico to hear.

“What did you say?”

“I said I was just asking what you’d been doing for the past two years!”

“It’s not very interesting.”

“What?”

Nico sighed and leaned in until his lips were close to Percy’s ear shell. It was an awfully intimate position, as he had to press himself against Percy’s back to do it, and Nico felt his face get warm. It was a small blessing that Percy couldn’t see him. “There’s not much to say. I was in the Underworld a lot. Did a few jobs for my father. I traveled topside too, saw a bit of the world.”

“And you visited Camp Jupiter.” Before Nico could know what to reply to that, Percy went on, “I knew you’d probably go there during the holidays. It was my best bet on finding you.”

Who had told Percy that? Reyna, Hazel? It could have been Frank, too. Not that it mattered. Nico hadn’t asked anyone to keep his visits a secret. 

“I come whenever I have time,” he said.

“You could have visited us,” Percy said. “I mean, Annabeth and I. Especially since—” Percy’s chest expanded as he took a deep breath. “It would have been good to see you.”

For a moment, Nico didn’t know what to say. “Oh, uh. I was just—I didn’t think—”

“It’s okay,” Percy said. “I get it.”

Nico’s insides froze. Did Percy _know_? He didn’t act like he knew, though. Would he be so nonchalant about Nico clinging to him if he did? Nico waited with bated breath for Percy to elaborate, but Percy seemed to be done with the subject. Nico waited for another moment, wind whipping at his face, before he asked awkwardly, “And, uh, what about you? What have you been up to?”

“Oh, you know. School, and stuff.”

Nico frowned; that answer had been even more cagey than his own. “Do you like it?”

The muscles in Percy’s back stiffened. “It’s fine. I mean, studying has never come easily to me, so I have to work a lot. Not like—”

Not like Annabeth, Nico assumed Percy meant, although he didn’t say her name. Nico didn’t particularly want to hear Percy talk about his girlfriend, so he didn’t push. He had exhausted his resources for small talk and Percy didn’t seem to want to talk anymore, so they lapsed into silence. Nico started dozing off again, or at least that was what he thought. But after feeling like he’d closed his eyes for merely a minute, Percy shook his shoulder and called his name.

“Wake up, Nico. We’re there.”

Nico managed not to jump, but it took a fair amount of self-control. He’d been completely draped over Percy’s back, face pressed in his t-shirt. He’d even.... Nico wiped his mouth hurriedly, mortification finishing waking him up. He’d been _drooling_ on Percy’s t-shirt. There was a darker wet patch on the shoulder to prove it.

“Don’t worry about it, dude,” Percy said, because of course he’d caught Nico’s gesture. “I can’t tell you how many people I’ve drooled on.”

“Sorry,” Nico mumbled anyway.

Nico unsaddled more or less gracefully, grimacing at the stiffness and soreness in his thighs. They’d landed next to the Big House. Behind them, standing at the top of Half-Blood Hill, was the _Athena Parthenos_ , the statue Nico had almost died for, dazzling in the sun. Beyond the Big House the valley unraveled in front of their eyes like a dream, the white marble buildings immaculate, the lake glittering, the wind making the strawberry fields gently ripple. Laughter and cries of excitement echoed in the air. Nico’s first impressions of the camp years ago had been soured by the fact that he’d just learned this was where Bianca had decided to dump him, but it really was a wonderful place. Ten-year-old him had been torn between wanting to sulk and being beside himself with how _cool_ everything was. 

Some campers and a few satyrs were playing volleyball in the sandpit, and Nico recognized Jason among them. Jason saw them too, because he stopped running across the field to wave. He hauled himself out of the sandpit and trotted up to them.

“Hey, guys!”

Percy stroke Blackjack’s neck and the pegasus nuzzled his face before flying off. “You were right,” Percy said to Jason. “I found him at Camp Jupiter.”

Nico sent a covert glare at Jason, who responded with a raised eyebrow. “Hello, Nico,” he said. “It’s good to see you.”

He wrapped Nico in a bear hug, and Nico, used to this from him by now, tolerated it and even hugged Jason back for a brief moment. He took advantage of that moment to whisper in Jason’s ear, “You’re so dead.”

“You couldn’t have avoided him forever, anyway,” Jason whispered back.

 _I would have given it a good try,_ Nico thought, but he didn’t want Percy to start wondering what they were muttering about so he didn’t say it out loud. He did wish right now that he’d managed to avoid Percy forever; it wasn’t that he still crushed on him—because he _didn’t_ —but rather that he didn’t like how much being with Percy reminded him of the dumb kid he’d been. 

“What’s the next step?” he asked Percy, trying to be all business about it.

“We go get dinner,” Percy said. “I’m starving.”

“But—” Nico’s stomach rumbled at the mention of dinner, but he ignored it. “What about Aphrodite?”

“Aphrodite will let us know what the matter is in her own time. We’re not going to skip dinner waiting for her.”

Percy and Jason dragged a reluctant Nico across camp, aiming for the dinner pavilion. As they walked Nico could see other campers glance at them, some he thought he was probably supposed to know, others he’d never seen before and who must have been recent additions. He heard his name and the name of his father be murmured in conversational or conspiratorial tones. _Nico di Angelo, son of Hades._ Nico was on the lookout for hostility or mistrust, but the looks were mostly curious. Among the cluster of cabins at a distance cabin thirteen loomed darkly, like a rolling cloud announcing a storm. 

“You know you’re a bit of legend here,” Jason said.

“Huh?”

“Well, when new kids do the camp tour and they’re told about the different cabins, they ask, ‘Oh, there are children of Hades here?’ and we say, ‘Well, there’s one, but he never comes here so the cabin stays empty.’ And then we tell them about how you turned the tide during the Titan War by convincing your dad to help the Olympians, how you led the seven to the Doors of Death, and how you almost died bringing the Athena Parthenos here before Greeks and Romans could slaughter each other. They think you’re cool.”

“That’s—but—” Nico stuttered, confounded by the notion of young demigods thinking he was cool. “You and—you and Percy have done even more heroic things.” 

“Maybe, and I’m not saying we don’t have something of a reputation,” Jason said modestly. “But we don’t have the same aura of mystery that you have.”

“Yeah, sure,” Nico said.

“Jason is telling the truth,” Percy said. He was walking a little ahead, but he glanced over his shoulder at Nico before he added, “You’re as much a hero as we are. And we make sure that the younger kids know it.”

Nico blinked, mouth gaping, but Percy wasn’t turned his way anymore. The smile Jason aimed at him was tinged with smugness, though for the life of him Nico couldn’t figure what he had to be smug about. More campers were going the same way they were, now, siblings clustering together, and in the sea of orange t-shirts Nico was standing out even more painfully. Some of them were openly acknowledging him, greeting him by name. Nico recognized Leo Valdez, in the middle of a group of Hephaistos kids, and Piper, who waved at him even as the rest of her siblings were glowering.

“They’re not very happy with you two,” Jason said with a grimace. “They don’t get why their mother would want to talk to you, when she’s never even met some of them.”

“We can switch places,” Nico grumbled, although he could understand wanting your god parent to acknowledge you. Every demigod kid experienced that feeling at one point.

“Hey, Nico!”

Nico turned and saw a blond boy come in their direction, weaving his way through the other campers. Will Solace, Nico remembered. The Apollo kid who was a healer.

“Hello,” Nico said warily once Will was within earshot.

Will gave him a long and rather pointed up and down look. “Well, it looks like despite leaving against medical advice that last time, you didn’t melt into shadows, after all. That was still very reckless of you.”

“Um, what?”

But Will was already gone, running up after his siblings. Nico looked to Percy and Jason for an explanation about that mystifying interlude.

“Will was, uh, a little miffed when you disappeared two years ago,” Jason said.

“He said that you shouldn’t use any of your powers for a very long time if you didn’t want to turn into a shadow yourself,” Percy said, sounding a little miffed himself. “And then _Reyna_ said that you’d—” He cut himself off.

“When you took off we thought you’d shadow-traveled away,” Jason said, “and with everything Will and Reyna had said, we got kind of worried. But Hazel told us later that you were fine.”

“I didn’t use shadow-travel,” Nico said. “I’d heard Will’s warning loud and clear, believe me, as well as, you know, kind of noticed it myself. Hard to miss it when I started walking through things, and also that time when I was unconscious for three days and Coach Hedge and Reyna couldn’t move me because they literally couldn’t hold onto me. So, no, I didn’t shadow-travel. I _walked_ out of camp. And then I hitchhiked.”

“Still could have warned us,” Percy said.

Nico had told Hazel, which he’d thought was the extent of the people who would care. When he’d visited Jason six months later in California, Jason hadn’t said anything on the topic, although now that Nico thought about it he _had_ looked strangely excited to see Nico. The thought that he’d actually worried people with his abrupt departure filled Nico with a mix of guilt and nervousness. That _Percy_ had been worried—

“Uh, sorry, I guess?” he said.

The slap Jason gave him on the back was maybe a little punishing. “It’s fine. It was years ago now.”

Jason and Percy both insisted that Nico eat at their respective table, and after much deliberation it was decided that the three of them would eat at Jason’s table. Nico went with the flow, too sore and tired to argue about something stupid like sitting arrangements. It had been a couple of months since he’d talked that much with living people in the same day, and he was looking forward to retiring to the dark quiet of the Hades cabin. Still, it was at this point that it occurred to him that there was something strange about the situation. Where was Annabeth?

As they sat down at cabin one’s table Nico looked around for her. He was surprised to see her at her usual spot, deep in conversation with two of her siblings. She wasn’t looking in their direction at all, maybe a little too pointedly. Nico snuck a glance at Percy and saw that he was angled away from the Athena kids’ table. Did Percy and Annabeth have a fight? Nico wanted to ask about it, but then he caught the warning in Jason’s expression and said nothing. It was hard to hold in the questions that burned his lips, though. He was curious, because Percy and Annabeth had always seemed like the strongest of couples, and he was.... He wasn’t happy about it, no. He didn’t even want to care about it. Mostly he was tired and confused, and wishing he were back to the Underworld, where everything was much simpler—wishing that Percy Jackson had never come to find him.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a little strange, having Nico around again. Not exactly a bad sort of strange, but Percy had never been fully sure of where he stood with the son of Hades. Over the past two years he’d replayed the memory of the last conversation they’d had many times, wondering where he’d gone wrong. He’d thought about fumbling through his thanks while Nico busily tied ropes around the Athena Parthenos, acting cool and guarded. 

_‘Dude, I’m trying to thank you.’_

_‘I’m trying to say that you don’t need to.’_

Coming from Nico, it hadn’t sounded like a friendly ‘ _don’t worry about it_ ’. And when Nico had disappeared after the last battle against Gaia, Percy hadn’t been able to stop wondering if it had something to do with him. Nothing had made him change his mind, especially since it appeared that Nico hadn’t actually dropped off the face of the earth. He still visited some people. He was friendly with Jason, if that hug from earlier was any indication. It was just Percy that he was actively avoiding. 

Percy shook his head and dug heartily into his food, trying to stop another weird fit of melancholy from overwhelming him. It had been two months now. He should be feeling better by now. Maybe he shouldn’t have come to Camp Half-Blood for the summer—although when Aphrodite’s message happened he would probably have been made to come anyway. 

Across from him Jason was chatting happily to Nico, who made humming noises from time to time to show that he was listening. Percy observed him covertly, noting the ways he’d changed. He’d grown taller, at least a couple of inches, and was almost the same height as Percy, now; still thin but with strong, muscled arms, as Percy could attest from when they were riding on Blackjack. His face had sharpened, losing the softness that remained from childhood. He was pale as ever, but it didn’t look as unhealthy as it used to. He looked like his mother, Maria di Angelo, more than he had in the past. From the memory Percy had witnessed, she had been a very beautiful woman. 

Campfire sing-alongs used to be one of Percy’s favorite camp activities, but he hadn’t been feeling it this summer. After dinner, Jason went off to join Leo and Piper. Percy would have gone with him, but Annabeth was already chatting with Piper. He’d hoped he might be able to sit with Nico, but Nico declared he was tired and went directly to his cabin. He did look tired, but Percy suspected he wanted to avoid having to socialize too much. Truth to be told, Percy was tempted to imitate him. Even though he was friendly with a lot of campers, he sat on his own by the fire, broodily watching his marshmallow wither and blacken. The shadows at his back, made darker by the fire, felt like they actually had substance. Maybe they did, for Nico to be able to use them. Percy remembered something Nico had told him once, about there being only one darkness, allowing creatures of the Underworld to use it as a road. He felt like a pouting child, gloomily thinking about darkness, but he couldn’t make himself get out of his funk. He was leery of what Aphrodite wanted with him and Nico, but part of him hoped that she’d send them on some sort of quest. He needed something to do so he could avoid thinking about all the things that had gone wrong over the past year. 

He sang half-heartedly during the sing-along, then got up as soon as the last song was finished. He was watching his feet as he followed the path that would lead him back to his cabin, so he didn’t realize she was right behind him until she said his name, “Percy, wait.”

He froze, then turned around. “Annabeth,” he said. 

He spent so much of his days trying to avoid looking at her that it was a shock, how lovely she looked in the semi-darkness created by the dying fire. He searched her face for some sign of the same heartbreak he was feeling, but she was unreadable. Why was she even talking to him? 

“You found Nico,” she said.

“Seems like it.”

“How is he?”

“He’s—Nico, I guess. Which means, who knows. But if it’s so important to you, you can always ask him about it.”

“Yeah, I don’t know.”

Percy thought again about how Annabeth and he had theorized that Nico had a crush on her, and that it was why he’d run away the last two times. If this was true, and providing that Nico still felt the same—which, given how he acted with Percy, was likely to be the case—then that was his chance right there. The idea made Percy want to throw up. 

“Is that what you wanted to talk about?” he asked. “You wanted to ask about Nico?”

For a moment, her mask slipped. “No, I—” She briefly looked away, then back at him. “I’m worried about you. You don’t look well.”

Percy took a deep breath. Almost against his will, his hand lifted until he was almost touching her. She didn’t move away, but she didn’t move closer either. Campers were walking past them but Percy couldn’t care less if they were gossiping about seeing he and Annabeth talk. Aphrodite campers had been up in arms about the break-up. They’d kept pestering him with tips on how to win back Annabeth, at least until he’d become one of their least favorite people for stealing their mother’s attention. 

“I miss you,” Percy said in a painful whisper.

She closed her eyes. “Percy....”

“If only you would give me another chance, I would—”

“ _Percy_. Don’t. We couldn’t keep going like this. We’d have ended up hating each other and I don’t want that.”

“Well, now we don’t talk to each other at all! I don’t think it’s such an improvement.”

“We need time. It’ll get easier.” She inched forward, her face getting too close to his. “I don’t want to lose you,” she said in a low voice. 

“You don’t have to lose me,” he said.

“I—” She stepped away, shrinking back into herself. “I shouldn’t have—I’m sorry, I’m making this harder on you.”

She walked away hurriedly, leaving Percy feeling dizzy and bereft, his body humming with the memory of having her so close. 

He didn’t sleep much that night, tossing and turning for hours, thinking about Annabeth, in turns hoping and hating himself for hoping, and then about Nico and about how unfathomable he was. Of course, it was when he’d finally managed to fall into deeper sleep that it was time to wake up and head for the dinner pavilion. 

At breakfast, Nico stubbornly sat at his cabin’s table, alone. No nagging from Jason managed to make him change his mind. As soon as he was done he took off the gods knew where, and Percy couldn’t look for him because he had to get ready for the sword-fighting lesson he was giving to the new comers. Luke had instructed this class when Percy had first arrived at camp, and initially it had made him wistful to be replacing Luke, but he’d come to enjoy it. Sword-fighting lessons were the only moments when he could let himself forget about everything else.

For the first half-hour, Percy watched the kids do basic slash and stab moves on the training dummies, then he paired them up and asked them to duel. The class had about ten students, all of them new comers who’d found their way to the camp this summer. The youngest was eight years old, a son of Hermes with too much energy and not enough coordination. The oldest was twelve and was a daughter of Iris; she dug her heels every step of the way, claiming she didn’t believe in violence and didn’t understand why she couldn’t opt out the lessons.

“You only have to learn the basics,” Percy told her tiredly for what felt like the hundredth time. “Just enough that you will know how to defend yourself.”

“I have no reason to fight with anyone,” the girl, Maja, informed him haughtily.

“Monsters aren’t going to give you a choice.”

“Stop arguing and let’s just do the exercise,” said Maja’s exasperated partner.

The girl eventually relented and started dueling, waving her sword in broad, halted strikes as if she was afraid it would turn on her. Meanwhile, the eight-year-old, Joshua, had managed to slash himself with his own sword. Percy contained a sigh and the urge to face-palm before he went to check on the boy. The cut was shallow and barely bleeding, and Joshua was rearing to go back but Percy wasn’t inclined to let him. At the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow linger at the edge of the arena. A closer look told him that it wasn’t a shadow, but Nico, watching the lesson with his arms crossed, leaning against a wall. At his side hung his dark Stygian iron sword, and Percy was hit with a genius idea.

“Okay, kids, enough practice,” he told the group. “Let’s take a break. We can have a little demonstration instead. Do you want to see what a real sword duel looks like?”

Some exclaimed enthusiastically, some groaned, some looked at their finger nails. Percy considered it an encouraging response. 

“Nico!” he called. “Come here!”

Nico twisted around to look behind him, as if he thought there was another camper sharing his name wandering around. “Why?” he asked.

“Let’s give the kids a show. You and me.”

Even as he was talking, Percy was sure that Nico was going to shrug and walk away. So he was surprised, but thrilled, when Nico shrugged and walked _toward_ him. The kids whispered excitedly as they watched him approach. _He’s the son of Hades!_

“You’re way better than me,” Nico said to Percy. “I don’t know how much of a show this is going to be.”

“You’re being modest,” Percy said. “I’ve seen you use that sword. And I’m sure you’ve improved over the past two years. Why don’t you show me?” 

He knew he’d hit the right note when Nico narrowed his eyes, his hand going to the sword at his side. He stilled his hand before it reached the hilt, saying, “Give me another sword. This one will drain your life force.” 

It was a creepy declaration, made even creepier by the dark way Nico said it. No one else in Percy’s acquaintances had a such a knack for unsettling. An uneasy murmur ran through the group of Percy’s students. 

“If you can touch me, that’s it,” Percy replied, feeling reckless, some insane part of him unable to help wanting to goad Nico.

Nico lifted an eyebrow, his face cool as a carved block of ice. “I thought you had faith in my abilities.”

“I said you’d have to show me.”

Nico stared at him for two heartbeats, then said, “Okay. You’re on.”

“Uhh,” said one of the kids. “What exactly is wrong with this sword?”

“This is Stygian iron,” Percy explained, his eyes not leaving Nico. “It’s mined and forged in the Underworld and cooled in the River Styx. It can harm both mortals and immortals.”

“And isn’t it, like, dangerous to use it for sparring?”

“I’ll be fine,” Percy said, taking Riptide out of his pocket and uncapping it. The sword sprang in his hands and he gave it a swirl. 

“Show off,” Nico said. 

“Make me regret it.”

Nico unsheathed his sword. The blade was so dark that it seemed to suck the light around it. It was long, too, longer than Riptide—Percy remembered a time when that dark nightmare blade had been almost half the size of an eleven-year-old Nico. He made a quick calculation of how he would have to take the blade’s reach into account when they dueled.

“Ready?” he asked Nico. 

“Ready if you are.”

They started circling each other, taking the time to assess one another, and Percy’s mind emptied of everything that wasn’t the present moment, the sun beating down his back, Nico’s sharp eyes examining him across the safe distance they were keeping between them. A blessed calm took hold of him. He was in his element, here. The only thing that mattered right now was how good Nico would turn out to be. 

“When are they—” he heard Joshua whisper. The other kids shushed him furiously. 

Nico attacked first. In two quick steps he closed the distance between them, his sword raised like for an overhead attack. Percy raised his own sword to parry, but he saw at the last moment the way Nico shifted his weight on one leg and anticipated the kick to his liver that came instead. He stepped back quickly enough that Nico hit air instead, and struck down immediately in retaliation. Nico had recovered his balance superbly and managed to parry. He sidestepped, reestablishing enough distance between them that he was out of Percy’s reach.

“So this is how it’s going to be,” Percy said, but he was grinning.

Nico didn’t reply, and he wasn’t smiling back, but his expression was focused rather than guarded or hostile. This time Percy didn’t give him time to prepare his attack—he rushed at Nico, sword over his head, and cut down from the right to the left with all his strength. Nico parried and their blades met in a resounding clash of metal. Some of the kids gasped. Without missing a beat, Percy raised his sword again, but then sidestepped and dropped the attack, aiming for Nico’s leg. The sword slashed through Nico’s jeans, but Nico jumped back fast enough to avoid more damage. It was hard to tell whether Percy had hurt him or had just cut the denim, because the jeans were black, like everything Nico wore, and blood would be invisible on it. He wasn’t limping or favoring his other leg, and his face showed no pain. He was smiling a little, though, a slight curve at the corner of his mouth. 

Percy gave Riptide another twirl, just to see Nico roll his eyes at him, and then he thrust forward, signaling that the fight wasn’t over. Nico deflected the thrust, hair flying in his eyes, before he stepped further into Percy’s space, grappling for Percy’s sword arm. The move brought them very close, leaving Percy with a faint impression of Nico’s warm breath against the side of his face. At the same time Nico’s blade came flying, forcing Percy to duck low in an attempt to bring Nico down with him. 

“Get him, Percy!” someone yelled, but the words were only background noises to the roar of Percy’s blood in his ears.

He didn’t manage to make Nico fall, but he did successfully wrestle out of his grip and they started fighting again with renewed ardor. The blades clang, and the sand on the ground of the arena flew around them, and Percy’s body thrummed with adrenaline. If there were more exclamations coming from the onlookers, then he couldn’t hear them. Sweat dripped in his eyes and ran down his back, but he couldn’t help grinning like a fool the whole time. This was fun. Nico was fast, had good reflexes and knew how to handle that long blade of his. This was the most fun Percy had had in a long while. 

He was getting tired, though. The focus he needed in order to avoid getting nipped by Nico’s blade was draining, and he was losing speed. He gave Nico a long slice on the arm, but that only made Nico become more relentless. _I need to end this sooner than later_ , Percy thought, and he decided to go for the disarming technique that Luke had shown him years ago. He hit Nico’s blade with his own and twisted, pushing downward at the same time. Nico’s sword was jerked from his grip and clattered to the ground. Percy could have stopped here, but he took advantage of Nico’s second of distraction to trip him up, shove him to the ground and straddle him, one hand at the center of his chest to pin him down, the other holding the blade to his throat.

They both stayed frozen in that position for a moment, looking at each other. Nico’s chest was heaving, his face flushed from exertion. Percy’s heart was still pounding steadily, his system not caught up to the fact that he’d stopped fighting. His whole body felt like it was buzzing.

“Get off me,” Nico said in an odd, choked voice.

Percy pushed away and got back on his feet, holding a hand out for him. “Great fight,” he said.

“Unsurprising outcome,” Nico said, not looking at Percy. He took the hand offered to him and hauled himself up. “I’m nowhere near your level.”

“You’re good,” Percy insisted. He didn’t say that if they had also been using their powers, he wasn’t sure at all he would have had the upper hand. “I had an awesome time. Thank you,” he added in a lower voice. “I—I needed that.”

He managed to catch Nico’s eyes, a little widened in surprise at the admission, before Nico looked away again. Reality reasserted itself suddenly when Percy heard clapping and cheering. He looked around and saw that his small group of beginner sword fighters had been joined by other campers. Leo and Piper were in the crowd, as well as Annabeth, although she turned around and walked away when Percy met her eyes.

Percy cleared his throat. “And this, kids,” he said to his students, “is a real sword duel. Say thank you to Nico for the demonstration.”

“No, it’s really not—“ Nico said.

“Thank you, Nico!” the kids chorused. 

“We should find you some ambrosia,” Percy said to Nico, grabbing his wrist so he could have a look at the slash on his arm. It had already stopped bleeding but it ran almost the whole length of his forearm. “What about your leg? Did I—”

Nico snatched his arm back. “It’s fine. I just need to clean up the cuts.”

“The class is dismissed,” Percy said to the group. “Let’s meet again tomorrow at the same time, and I hope you’ll be more motivated than ever.”

Nico and he made their way to exit the arena, Joshua hopping at Percy’s elbow and asking him excitedly, “Percy! Percy, can you show me that last technique you did? The disarming one. Can you teach it to me, oh, please, Percy?”

“I’ll show it to you when I’m sure you can handle your sword properly. That means not stabbing yourself with it!”

“I didn’t _stab_ myself!” was the indignant reply.

Campers crowded around them, clapping Percy’s back but also Nico’s, and Nico’s utter look of shock at this was pretty funny. Percy was busy smiling at the sight, when he saw a white bird fly low over their heads. 

“What’s this bird doing?” he asked. “Does it look weird to anyone else?”

As everyone looked up, the bird flew right at Percy and landed on his shoulder.

“It’s a dove,” Nico said.

“Um, okay?”

“And doves are one of Aphrodite’s symbols.”

“ _Oh_.”

The dove wasn’t really doing anything except stare at Percy. Percy had never had a bird stare at him and it was a disconcerting experience.

“What do you want?” he asked the bird.

He had almost expected it to speak—it would be far from the strangest thing he’d witnessed—but instead it flew off and went to perch on Nico’s shoulder. 

“This bird is clearly not normal,” Nico said in a strained voice, eyeing the dove mistrustfully. “Animals hate me.”

“Let me see,” Piper said, elbowing her way through other campers, Leo on her heels. 

She cooed at the bird, stroking lightly its feathers while she examined it. “Look at this,” she said, and Percy got closer to look at where she was pointing. “The feathers on its belly.”

The feathers in question were a light pink. Percy was no bird expert and he didn’t know whether that color was normal on a dove. 

“This definitely feels like it comes from my mother,” Piper said, her fingers caressing the dove’s head. 

“You were waiting for a sign,” Nico said to Percy. “I think this is it.”

“Probably,” Percy said. “But what are we supposed to—”

He startled when the bird suddenly flew off. It quickly disappeared out of view and Percy shared a look with Nico. 

“Okay,” he said, “so that was a bust, I guess.”

“Look!” someone exclaimed. 

The bird had come back and was now flying in circles over their heads. It flew away one more time, then came back again, flitting about in a way that felt very pointed.

“I think it wants you to follow it,” Leo said.

“Let’s go, then,” Nico said.

“But, wait, you’re injured—”

Nico hissed between his teeth. “I’m fine. The goddess is calling. Do you really think that we can make her wait?”

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Piper said with a grimace. 

Percy had to agree that it wasn’t wise to risk upsetting Aphrodite. He didn’t relish the thought of what sort of disgusting thing the goddess could make him lust for in retaliation. To follow the bird, they didn’t have a choice but to get Blackjack so they could fly after it, which made Nico grumpy. They had to wake up the pegasus from his nap, so Blackjack wasn’t very happy with Percy either. The endorphin high Percy had gotten from his fight with Nico was all but a memory and everyone’s annoyance was starting to irritate him too. 

“If you don’t go after that bird, Aphrodite will make you fall in love with a donkey!” he snapped at Blackjack.

_All right, boss, we’re going after the bird. No need to be so touchy!_

The dove was flying back to them, probably wondering what was taking them so long. Percy hopped on Blackjack and helped Nico get on. Nico circled Percy’s middle with his arms just as loosely as last time, but Percy decided not to waste time commenting on it. He clucked his tongue and Blackjack took off. 

The dove flew across Long Island Sound, toward Connecticut, and Blackjack followed. They flew over what must have been New London, then over miles of trees, none of them talking. Blackjack was busy focusing on not losing the dove, which was flying a good distance ahead of them, but the silence from Nico felt as heavy as it had when they’d traveled to Camp Half-Blood the previous day. Percy could feel the muscles in Nico’s arms strain from the effort it took him not to lean against Percy. His attitude was incomprehensible. Obviously, he had major intimacy issues. It wasn’t really surprising given some of the things he’d been through. But if he could hug Jason without punching him in the face, then surely he could hold onto Percy when there was a practical reason for it. Percy was trying not to be vexed by Nico’s standoffishness, but it was getting difficult not to. 

He opened his mouth to say something— _anything_ , just trying to engage Nico—but then Aphrodite’s bird dove down and Blackjack swooped after it. Percy felt Nico’s hold on him tighten as they plunged and the angle changed. They flew over a patch of woods, broke into the canopy, causing a panic among the birds, to finally land next to a prim little house surrounded by trees. It was painted white, with the windows trimmed with dark blue, and an American flag was floating over the porch’s roof. Percy and Nico got off Blackjack, and Percy told the pegasus to stay put. He looked for the dove, but the bird was nowhere to be seen.

 _Good luck, boss!_ Blackjack said, before he started grazing nonchalantly on the impeccably manicured lawn. 

Percy and Nico climbed the steps that led to the porch. Percy was instinctively trying to be as silent as possible and Nico made no sound at all, moving like a shadow, and yet the entrance door flew open before they reached it.

“Welcome!”

A woman stood in the doorway, wearing a flowery summer dress that fluttered to an absent wind. From anyone else’s perspective, she probably just looked like a young, very beautiful woman, but Percy knew better. He didn’t recognize her the way you would recognize someone from their looks, even though he’d met her before, but there was no mistaking that radiant smile.

“Hello, Aphrodite,” Percy said. 

“It’s always a pleasure to see you, Percy,” the goddess said. She reached out and cupped his face with a hand. Percy tensed but made himself keep still. “Oh, I’m so sorry. But you don’t have to worry. Endings are only an excuse for new beginnings.”

Percy gritted his teeth. “You wanted to see us?” he said. 

“Indeed! Glad you could make it. Nico di Angelo!” she exclaimed, switching her attention to Nico, who looked for a brief moment like a deer caught in the beams of headlights. “I’m so happy to finally meet you in person. _So_ happy.”

Nico narrowed his eyes, looking hostile all of a sudden. “I’ve met your son,” he said coldly.

“Oh, I know. I’ve heard all about it.”

Nico’s expression promised murder and Percy started to think that he was missing some crucial element of context. He’d never heard of Nico meeting Aphrodite’s son, whoever that was, but then Nico had probably done a lot of things that Percy didn’t suspect. Whatever was the matter, Nico’s belligerence only made Aphrodite laugh. Incongruously, she brought her index to her lips and let out a soft ‘ _sshh_ ’.

“But please come on in!” she said, ushering Percy and Nico inside. 

She led them to a pleasant living room furnished in white and blue. Sunlight flowed into the room through laced curtains, and delicate porcelain knickknacks decorated round pedestal tables and the chimney mantel. Percy wondered if Aphrodite had made that house spring from the ground, or if she had chased the real owners. There were no pictures anywhere, on the walls or on the mantel, that could help him decide one way or another. Maybe this was all just an illusion. 

“Please have a seat!”

She served them tea and cookies, like a perfect housewife straight from a TV show of the 50s’. Percy dipped his lips in the tea and nibbled the cookies, but Nico didn’t touch anything, looking ready to bolt any moment. 

Aphrodite didn’t seem to take offense. She sat down at the table across from them and said, “I’m sure you’re wondering why I wanted to meet with you.”

“You could say that, yes,” Nico said tightly. 

“No need to look so severe! This is all very silly. Or, well. The initial matter wasn’t silly, but this all happened so long ago! Anyway, the trouble started as we were enjoying a feast on Mount Olympus, and we were having an excellent time until Eris did that stupid trick with her apple again—I presume I don’t have to tell you about the Apple of Discord?”

“No,” Percy said. “So, what was her problem? Did you forget to invite her again?”

“Not even that! She was invited—we’ve all learned that lesson—but I guess she was irritated because, well, she always seems to be irritated about something. What matters is the apple, and what was written on it.”

“I guess it wasn’t about who’s the most beautiful, this time,” Nico said.

“No, nothing of the sort. We already know the answer to that particular question.” Aphrodite smiled smugly. “No, the message was, ‘who killed Adonis?’”

“He was your lover, wasn’t he?” Nico said. “You shared him with my step-mother, Persephone. And he was killed by—”

“A wild boar,” Aphrodite said, and this time there was a flicker of sadness in her eyes. It looked genuine, although you could never know with Aphrodite. 

“Wasn’t it sent by Ares?” Percy asked.

“Some said it was sent by Artemis, in some petty revenge against me,” Aphrodite said. “There were other suspects. We never got to the bottom of what happened. Many centuries have passed since then, and the exact circumstances of Adonis’ death have been lost in time.”

“Until Eris tossed that Apple of Discord,” Nico said.

“Exactly. Since this is summer, Persephone was there too and we started arguing again over which one of us he had loved best, and who was responsible for his death.” Aphrodite waved a hand. “It got a little out of control. I said some things. Persephone has stormed back to the Underworld, which has put Demeter in a mood.”

“Summer has been happening pretty normally so far, though,” Percy said.

“Demeter is still hoping that this is just a sulk. I—am not so sure. If she doesn’t get her daughter back soon, this could mess with the seasons and then Zeus would be on my case again.”

“Uh, not that I’m not feeling for you,” Percy said, trying to keep the sarcasm to a minimum, “but I don’t understand what Nico and me have to do with it.”

“I’m getting there. I want to finally put this terrible affair to rest. If we knew for sure who is responsible for Adonis’ death, then I’m sure that Persephone would calm down. So here is your mission, young heroes: find who sent the boar that killed poor beautiful Adonis.”

She looked at them with her delicate eyebrows raised in expectation, as if waiting for their enthusiastic response and being a little disappointed that it wasn’t forthcoming. Percy was still processing the demand and couldn’t react in any way for a few long seconds.

“Wait,” he said at last. “You mean we’re supposed to solve a murder that happened _thousands_ of years ago?”

“All the important protagonists are still alive,” Aphrodite said breezily. “This should be no trouble.”

“And what should we do if we find the culprit? Do we send an anonymous letter to the police, or what?”

“You bring me proof. I’ll submit it to Zeus and he’ll decide what to do about it. Hopefully Persephone will be appeased and everything will be back to normal.”

“Why us, though?” Percy asked. “Why Nico and me?”

“Oh, for several reasons. You’re both powerful, reasonably smart demigods. Nico here has easy access to the Underworld. I suppose you’ll want to talk to Persephone, and anyway the use of shadow-travel will make you more efficient. Percy, I know you won’t hesitate to be—forward with the people you’ll interrogate, even if they’re gods.”

“Is that your way of saying that I’m insolent?” Percy asked.

Aphrodite smiled sweetly, weaving her fingers and resting her chin on them. “I like that about you. I have complete faith in the powers of your investigative duo.”

There was a pause, then Nico asked, “Is that it? Can we go, now?”

“You have four weeks to complete your task. After that, Demeter will probably have lost patience and wrecked summer irreparably. If that happens, well, we’ll have to find another way to solve the matter with Persephone. Oh, and before you leave, I wanted to do this.”

She leaned forward and reached across the table with both hands, grabbing Percy and Nico’s wrists and clasping them together. 

“What—” Nico said.

“Hey!” Percy exclaimed.

Warmth suffused his arm, starting in his hand and then climbing his arm up to his shoulder. A wave of dizziness overcame him and for a moment his vision blurred. He blinked a few times and it cleared easily, which was when Aphrodite let go of him and Nico. Percy shook his arm, but it felt normal except for a sensation of pins and needles that quickly dissipated. 

“What did you do?” Nico growled.

“I bound the two of you,” she said. “Oh, don’t give me that look. It will dispel on its own eventually. In due time.” For some reason, she was looking at Nico as she said it.

“What do you mean, ‘bound’?” Percy asked. 

“It’s a very simple binding. Nothing intrusive. You simply can’t get further than 40 feet from each other. If you do—”

Nico stood up like a shot, toppling his chair backward, and marched out of the room. A few seconds after he’d disappeared through the doorway, Percy was hit by a dizzy spell so strong he slid off his chair and crumpled in a heap on the floor. The edges of his vision darkened, his ears were ringing, and he was about to lose consciousness when Nico stumbled back in the room, unsteady on his feet. As soon as Percy saw him, the dizziness evaporated. 

Nico’s face was a thundercloud. He addressed Aphrodite a baleful glare and his mouth pinched. He stepped back into a shadowed corner of the room and it took Percy a split second to understand what he meant to do.

“Nico! Don’t—”

Nico melted in the pool of shadows. The dizziness came back like a slap in the face and Percy pitched forward. He heard a gasp, then a crashing noise. He looked up, his vision clearing, and saw that Nico had been spat out of the shadows and was now on his hands and knees, shaking and panting.

“I could have told you that this wouldn’t work,” Aphrodite said evenly. 

“Why did you do this?” Percy said, shakily getting on his feet and walking up to Nico. He touched Nico’s shoulder to see if he was okay and got a stinging slap on the arm for his trouble.

“I want to make sure that you stick together,” Aphrodite said. “This mission needs you both. I don’t want one of you to decide to run off on his own.”

She was talking about Nico, Percy thought. That much seemed obvious. She was still smiling, sitting in her chair with her hands folded in her lap. She looked gleeful, for some reason. Percy was sure there was something to this quest that she wasn’t telling them, but it was useless to ask her about it. 

“Can you get up?” Percy asked Nico, who was still on the floor; it looked like getting jerked out of the shadows had been particularly painful for him.

“Yes.”

Nico hoisted himself up a little wobblily. Percy stood next to him in case he needed a hand, but he’d learned his lesson about touching without permission. 

“Let’s go,” Percy said. 

“Good luck!” Aphrodite called out as they left, but they ignored her. 

“I’m sure that she chose me partly to spite my step-mother,” Nico said as they walked down the porch stairs.

“Maybe,” Percy said. “I also think she has ulterior motives she hasn’t told us about.”

Nico shrugged. He hadn’t looked at Percy even once since Aphrodite had put that binding on them. Percy wasn’t sure what to do about it. If they were going to be literally stuck together for the next four weeks, then they needed to at least try to get along. Percy didn’t want to mess _that_ up too.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Nico glanced at him. “What for?”

“I know you hate being forced to put up with me.”

Nico stopped at the bottom of the stairs, one hand on the wooden railing, scratching the paint with a fingernail. “It’s not your fault. It’s the fault of this meddling—” He made a snappy motion of the hand in direction of the house, then breathed deeply through his nose. “It’s all right. I just kind of panicked. What should we do now?”

“We should go back to the camp and, I don’t know, make a list of everyone we need to talk to. Maybe get some rest before we start this investigation.”

Nico nodded, and they went back to where they’d left Blackjack. The pegasus was still enjoying the grass, and he looked up lazily at their approach.

 _How did it go, boss?_ he asked.

“Oh, it went great,” Percy said. “Just wonderful.”


	3. Chapter 3

The ride back to Camp Half-Blood happened in a daze. The fury that ran in Nico’s veins like acid made it hard to be embarrassed about anything. He knew— _knew_ —that the bond Aphrodite had put on them had little to do with their investigation. She was of course aware, as she’d plainly stated, of the confession he’d made to her son Cupid. And she believed… it didn’t matter what she believed. She probably thought it funny to force him to share space with the first boy he’d liked. A boy that he still very reluctantly found attractive—it was useless trying to deny that part, and besides, it was likely he wasn’t the only one at camp with that opinion. There was nothing wrong with admitting that someone was good-looking; it didn’t have to mean anything. 

Nico was starting to think that running away from Camp Half-Blood might not have been the best course of action. Maybe having to spend a lot of time with living boys his age would have made some situations easier for him to handle. It looked like he was a hero, now! If he’d stayed, he might have learned by now how to behave normally when another boy was too close. It sometimes felt like accepting he was gay was an infinite process that had a million stages to it. He’d thought he was okay with it, but he was getting to realize that he’d merely cut himself away from the reality of it. Even his friendship with Jason was just a collection of very brief, safe visits. 

Case in point: the duel he’d had with Percy earlier, before that stupid bird had come to fetch them. Just the memory of Percy’s weight pressing down on him, his thighs clamped around Nico’s hips, was enough to make the blood rush to his face. At that moment he’d had one single, desperate thought, ‘ _Please, please, don’t get hard.’_ He hadn’t, thank the gods, but it had been a close call.

And now he was supposed to spend almost an entire month within forty feet of Percy! Nico’s feverish mind was already calculating what that meant. They would be able to go to the bathroom alone, providing the other one was right in the next room, but they’d have to share a room to sleep. Damn Aphrodite to Tartarus! Nico addressed to the goddess a number of blasphemous thoughts so scathing that he’d probably just cursed himself to never finding love. Not that he’d been very hopeful in the first place. 

By the time they arrived at camp, Nico had calmed down a little. Still, when Percy asked him if he was okay, Nico couldn’t help snapping, “I’m fine! Just leave me alone, okay?”

Percy’s face scrunched up. “Uh, I can’t, remember?”

 _Someone wake me up from that nightmare._ “Yeah. Sorry,” he made himself say. None of this was Percy’s fault. It wasn’t fair of Nico to take it out on him. “I’m a little jumpy.”

“It’s been a long day, and it’s not even noon yet.” Percy visibly hesitated before adding, “Any, uh, lingering effect from when you were stopped from shadow-traveling?”

“No,” Nico said. He had a headache, but Percy didn’t need to know that.

“What about—” Percy waved at the cut on Nico’s arm.

Nico looked down at it. He’d honestly forgotten about his injuries—the wound on his arm stung, as did the one on his leg, but this was just background annoyance.

“I’ll take care of it later. What do you want to do? Should we... I don’t know, talk to Chiron about what Aphrodite wants us to do?”

Percy beamed at him, as if Nico had just had the best idea ever. “Yeah, good thinking, man. Let’s do that.”

On their way to the Big House they met Jason, Piper, Leo and Annabeth, and the group followed them there as if it were only natural for them to be present while Percy and Nico told the story of their meeting with Aphrodite. 

“Do you know of a way to break the bond your mother put on us?” Percy asked Piper.

Nico hadn’t had much hope on that front, but it was still a let-down when Piper shook her head. “Only my mother can do that,” she said. “I’m sorry about what she did, by the way.”

Percy patted her shoulder. “Not your fault. She said that it would dissipate on its own, probably when our four weeks are up. It’s fine.”

Jason glanced at Nico at that moment. He was the only person in the room who could guess how _not_ fine Nico found it. But it served no purpose to keep wringing his hands over it, so Nico asked Chiron, “Who do you think we should talk to in priority?”

“You should try talking to Eris,” the centaur said. “There must be a reason why she asked that question about Adonis’ death. She must have been in Mount Olympus at some point, but I doubt Zeus tolerated her presence after she’d wrecked chaos once again.”

“We’ve met her when we were in Tartarus,” Percy said, the instinctive way he used ‘we’ leaving no doubt as to what other person he meant. “She may have gone back there if Zeus chased her from Mount Olympus, but I sure hope not.”

“Seconded,” Nico said. “Not keen on repeating that experience.”

“It would probably be a good thing to get Persephone’s side of the story as well,” Annabeth said. “And if she’s gone back to the Underworld, she should be easy for you to find, Nico.”

“Yeah,” Nico said, “and I’m sure that she’ll be delighted to see me.”

It was interesting how Annabeth had managed to make her suggestion while looking solely at Nico, even as Percy was sitting right next to him. At the same time, Percy was making a great show of playing distractedly with a loose thread from the hem of his t-shirt. It was becoming more and more apparent that whatever was going on between Percy and Annabeth was more serious than a simple fight. It actually looked like they’d _split up_ , and that everyone was doing their best to ignore the tension that existed between them like the proverbial elephant in the room. It gave Nico the sensation of standing right in the eye of a storm and it wasn’t a feeling he cared much for. 

“Ares and Artemis are the two usual suspects when it comes to the death of Adonis,” Chiron said. “But Aphrodite granted a lot of attention to Adonis. Any of her lovers could have felt jaded. As well as—” He sent a look Leo’s way.

“As well as my dad, yeah,” Leo said. “A wild boar isn’t exactly Dad’s M.O., though. I can always ask him about it, if you want. Maybe it’ll go better if it comes from me.”

“And you’ll report everything he says,” Nico said, unable to keep the doubt out of his voice. 

“Don’t give me that look, Detective di Angelo,” Leo said, rolling his eyes. “Yes, I’ll report faithfully his every word. Like I said, I don’t think he had anything to do with it.”

“Whoever sent that wild boar was probably a god,” Piper said after nudging Leo in the ribs. “A mortal wouldn’t have done it like that. Mom’s most famous lovers among the gods, the ones she’s had children with, are Ares, Hermes, Dionysus, and Poseidon.”

“Wait, Dad had children with Aphrodite?” Percy asked. 

“Don’t you _ever_ read about mythology?” Annabeth said, sounding exasperated.

“I don’t have to read about it when it’s literally my life,” Percy said, the reply so automatic he must have used it in arguments before.

At this point, Percy and Annabeth shared a startled look, as if surprised they’d talked to each other. Everyone else exchanged nervous glances, waiting to see how they were going to follow it up. When a few seconds passed and neither of them was saying or doing anything but looking at each other with wide eyes, Jason cleared his throat and said, “You’ll have to talk to all of them, although even if one of them is responsible I doubt they would say anything. I seriously don’t understand what Aphrodite is expecting from you.”

“We’ll start with my step-mother,” Nico said. “I do want to know what got her hackles up. Aphrodite was a little vague on that point. We could go right now, actually. The sooner we start, the quicker we can hope to be rid of that bond.”

“If this is to be considered a quest,” said Chiron, “then you better get a prophecy before you start. It could offer you some much needed guidance. Of course, it would be better if you were three, but Lady Aphrodite seems intent on having you two handle this.”

“Oh, right,” Nico said. “I don’t think I’ve seen the Oracle since I’ve arrived.”

“Rachel is at some sort of art camp,” Percy said. “She’s supposed to come here in August, but we can I-M her.”

Percy tried to I-M Rachel, using the water from the basin that Chiron probably reserved to that usage. He managed to produce a rainbow, but when he invoked Iris nothing happened. The rainbow eventually vanished without Rachel’s face ever appearing. Percy tried again, calling for the nymph Fleecy without any better result.

“Well, sometimes it doesn’t work,” Percy said, but he was frowning. “They must be busy.”

“Let’s go to the Underworld, then,” Nico said.

He moved as though to stand up, but Percy motioned him to stay down. “Chiron,” he asked the centaur, “do you have any ambrosia for Nico? He’s injured.”

“Really, it’s fine,” Nico said through his teeth. He didn’t like reminding everyone of how Percy had wiped the floor with him. “I don’t need—”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Percy said off-handedly. “Why risk an infection when a little ambrosia will heal you in no time?”

Chiron had already gone to get Nico some ambrosia, so arguing became pointless. Nico’s wounds were shallow enough that even the tiny bit of ambrosia that Chiron gave him closed both cuts almost completely, leaving faint scars behind. Even his headache was gone, but Nico tried not to make his relief too obvious.

“See you guys later,” Percy said to the others, before taking Nico’s hand. “I’m ready.”

Nico led them through the nearest pool of shadows. Shadow-travel to the Underworld always seemed to last a fraction longer than when Nico traveled anywhere in the living world. It also felt colder, and the strange murmurs that followed the traveler sounded louder. To Nico, this was the sound of home.

They popped out of the shadows right in front of the black marble portico that marked the entrance to Hades’ palace. The skeletons that guarded it let Nico and Percy in without trouble.

“Brings back memories,” Percy said under his breath.

Nico avoided looking at him. The last time they’d been here together Nico had tricked Percy into talking with his father, and Hades had thrown him to the dungeon. Nico wondered if Percy was getting worried that it was yet another trap. He had to bite his tongue not to assure Percy that he could trust him this time. If Percy wasn’t thinking about that particular incident, it wouldn’t be a good thing to remind him of it. 

They walked through the entry hall, their footsteps echoing on the bronze floor. The palace was, as always, eerily silent except for faint whispers that seemed to come from everywhere at once, the corners inhabited with shadows that stalked the visitor. The first time he’d come here, Nico had been terrified, but it was so long ago that he’d forgotten what the fear felt like. Percy didn’t look particularly uncomfortable, but then he’d visited infinitely more frightening places. Nico took him to the Throne Room first, but they found Hades’ onyx throne empty.

“Have you ever thought to recommend to your father a change in decorator?” Percy said, pointing at the skulls that adorned the throne.

“Why rob people of their expectations?” Nico said, rather acerbly. 

They finally located Hades on the balcony that overlooked the Fields of Asphodel. There was no light, so you couldn’t see much of the Fields except for the silhouettes of the stunted poplar trees and the grey-white shimmering of the shades wandering through the plain. A low murmur, like the faint rustle of tissue paper, could be heard from here. The silver throne was empty, but Hades sat on the bone throne, two hellhounds lounging at his feet. The dead soldiers who guarded the god swirled around like one skeleton when Nico and Percy emerged on the balcony, though they relaxed when they recognized their master’s son. 

“Father,” Nico said, bowing his head in greeting.

“Ah, you’re back,” Hades said. “Are the hellhounds dead?”

“Yes, Father.”

“Good, good,” Hades said distractedly. “Something came up while you were gone, and—”

He cut himself off, his black eyes finally resting on Nico and Percy. It looked like he’d only just realized that Percy was there, because he said, his voice icy cold, “Percy Jackson. Here again.” 

“Glad to be back,” Percy said.

Hades looked back at Nico. “What happened?” he demanded to know, his voice like thunder. “Someone did something to you. Who was it?”

“Ah, well—” Nico did a brief summation of their encounter with Aphrodite and the task she’d entrusted them with. “We would like to talk with Persephone, to ask her about her version of the story.”

Hades’ face had darkened at the mention of Adonis, but when Nico was done with his story, the first thing he said was, “How _dare_ Aphrodite put a magical binding on my son!”

The hounds at his feet shifted restlessly, reacting to their master’s anger, and one of them let out a low growl. Nico’s stomach churned with embarrassed pleasure at his father’s indignation on his behalf. Was it protectiveness or possessiveness in his voice? Were the gods even capable of making a difference between the two?

“It’s all right, Father,” he said. “We just need to complete our mission to be rid of it. Which is why we need to know where Persephone is. Aphrodite said that she was back to the Underworld.”

“Oh, she’s back,” Hades said, disgruntled. “But she’s locked herself in her chambers and won’t come out. Good luck convincing her to talk to you.”

“She’s never going to listen to me,” Nico said a little desperately, seeing that his father wasn’t going to help him talk to Persephone.

“She doesn’t listen to me either! Maybe if you mention that investigation of yours she’ll open the door.” 

Hades stood from his throne and came up to Nico, looming over him with his inhuman height. Most mortal would have been overwhelmed by the intensity of his presence, the glimmer of madness in his obsidian-black eyes, the furious whispers from the evil souls threaded to his dark robes; but Nico was used to it, by now. 

“If Aphrodite doesn’t lift that bond when the time is up,” Hades said, his words laced with threat, “then you come to me. I’ll show that frivolous bimbo that she doesn’t get to mess with my children.”

“All right,” Nico said, although he had absolutely no intention of whining to his father that the goddess of love and beauty had been mean to him. Hades didn’t need to get in trouble again with the Olympians, for one. “I’ll guess we’ll go try talking with Persephone.”

“Best of luck,” Hades said, and then went back to his throne, dismissing them.

They went again through the dark, meandering corridors of Hades’ palace, the only light coming from the occasional torch. Nico wasn’t very hopeful that they were going to get anything out of his step-mother. Even on a good day Persephone wasn’t very likely to want to cooperate with him, and if she was sulking in her chambers rather than spending time in her gardens, then this wasn’t a good day at all. 

“Your dad is protective,” Percy commented as they walked.

“What, are you surprised?” Nico said, aware he was sounding defensive and unable to help it.

“No, I guess not. You’re with him a lot. More than most demigods.”

Nico glanced at Percy, trying to read him. Was Percy jealous of the time Nico spent with his father? It _was_ rather unusual; some of the kids at Camp Half-Blood had never even met their god parent. Nico had worked hard to secure a sliver of his father’s trust and respect, though. When Bianca had died, Hades had been very clear that he’d have preferred to lose Nico instead, and it had been a long, arduous road to make him reconsider his opinion, or at least not to show it openly. But maybe Percy’s comment had been caused by suspicion on where Nico’s loyalties lay. It might be that Percy still didn’t think that Nico could be loyal to both his father and the Olympians at the same time. Not knowing what exactly Percy meant, Nico decided not to reply to him and let silence settle back between them. It seemed safer that way.

Nico knew where Persephone’s chambers were, but he’d never actually been there. Standing in front of an ominous door made of dark wood, he felt like a child that had wandered somewhere he shouldn’t.

“Are we knocking, or what?” Percy asked.

Nico bit back a retort and rapped his knuckles against the wooden panel. No answer. He tried again, a little harder this time. 

“I said I wanted to be left alone!” was the muffled response from Persephone.

“It’s Nico,” Nico said. An unimpressed silence followed and he hurried to add, “Aphrodite has sent Percy and me to investigate Adonis’ death.”

They waited another long moment, and Nico thought that they’d lost their chance when the door half-opened, letting them see a sliver of Persephone’s suspicious face.

“Aphrodite sent you,”—she looked at Nico, her voice dripping with contempt—“and you.” When looking at Percy, her tone was a lot more amicable. 

“We just want to talk to you,” Percy said.

“About Adonis,” she said.

“We’re supposed to find out what really happened to him.”

“I don’t _know_ what really happened to him!”

“We need to talk to you anyway,” Nico said. “And we want your side of the story on the fight you had with Aphrodite in Mount Olympus.”

“Very well,” Persephone said. “You may enter.”

She opened the door wider for them and they went in what wasn’t Persephone’s bedroom but a sitting room, which looked completely unlike the rest of the palace. The stone walls were covered with multicolored drapery and there were flowers everywhere: cut flowers in vases, flowers in plant pots, and even ivy that seemed to grow from the floor and circled the ceiling like crown molding. The smell of flowers permeated the air; the many different scents should have conflicted but instead they blended perfectly, sweet and subtle. Somehow the room looked bright, even though sunlight never reached down to the Underworld.

Persephone had sat down in a throne-like chair decorated with carved wooden flowers. The colors of her dress were vibrant, and her eyes were warm and deep. Nico had never seen her look so alive and colorful—so much like her true self, he realized, as the goddess of springtime and flowers. There were other chairs in the room, all delicately carved with flowery crowns, but Persephone didn’t invite them to sit down and let Nico and Percy stand awkwardly in front of her. 

“Tell me,” the goddess ordered. 

Nico and Percy looked at each other, and between them passed the tacit message that Percy would better handle the conversation.

“What Aphrodite told us is that Eris tossed the Apple of Discord with a question written on it: ‘who killed Adonis?’” Percy said. “She said that the two of you fought about it, and that you were vexed by some of the things she said. She was really vague on that last point.”

“Vexed!” Persephone exclaimed. The colors on her dress swirled like petals caught in a whirlwind. “How could I not be vexed by the foul accusations she made!”

“What accusations?”

“She said that _I_ had orchestrated Adonis’ death! That I’d thought that if Adonis died, his soul would go to the Underworld and that I would have him to myself! What a ridiculous idea.”

“But, um,” said Percy, “doesn’t she have a point? Not that you ordered his death, of course, but that if Adonis died, you would be able to have him all year long?”

Persephone’s eyes flashed. “You don’t understand it any better than she does, Percy Jackson. Explain to him how it is, Nico.”

“If Adonis’ soul had gone to the Underworld, he would have probably gone to Elysium,” Nico said. “Think of it as… a sort of gated community. You don’t stroll in Elysium just like that. That’s why I—it—I couldn’t visit Bianca as I wanted.”

“Oh,” Percy said, and Nico had to look away from the pity in his eyes.

“I would have never been able to go see him without my husband noticing,” Persephone said. “There was no advantage for me to him dying.”

Nico agreed with his step-mother, and he believed her when she said she had nothing to do with her lover’s death, but he wondered if Aphrodite hadn’t believed her accusations and meant for Percy and Nico to find proof of her guilt. If Persephone were to be found responsible, Zeus would have ground to bring her to heel and force her to stop sulking in the Underworld. Even though Nico had a rocky relationship with his step-mother, he didn’t like the idea that Aphrodite might be trying to use him against her. 

“Wait,” Percy said, “there’s something I don’t understand: what happened to Adonis’ soul? If it’s not in the Underworld, where is it? I know the story says Aphrodite’s tears and Adonis’ blood mixed and then anemones grew out of it. But… is it like, Adonis _became_ the flowers?”

“He’s forever dying and being born again,” Persephone said wistfully. “Not such a bad fate. He makes a really beautiful flower.”

“Oo-kay,” Percy said. “So Nico couldn’t summon him for a talk, could he?”

“No,” Nico said. “He’s been transformed.”

“I guess it would have been too easy to just be able to talk to him,” Percy said with a sigh.

“I don’t know how useful it would’ve been,” Nico said. “He probably doesn’t know who sent the boar either.”

“No, I guess not. Who do you think sent that boar?” Percy asked Persephone.

The goddess waved a hand and several budding flowers bloomed. “So many people had reasons to be mad at Aphrodite,” she said dismissively. “Her husband. Her lovers. The twins both blamed her for various things.”

“The twins?” Percy asked.

“Artemis and Apollo. Artemis, because Aphrodite had killed her follower Hippolytus, and Apollo because she’d blinded his son, Erymanthus. Erymanthus, the silly boy, had spied on Aphrodite while she made love to Adonis. I think he had it coming, but of course Apollo disagreed.”

“Great,” Percy muttered, “one more suspect.”

“You know that you’re being manipulated by Aphrodite, don’t you?” Persephone said. “This is all a game to her. Her whole relationship with Adonis was based on a lie—he didn’t know the circumstances of his birth and the role she had in it! If he’d known, maybe he wouldn’t have been so keen on her.”

“And you never told him?” Nico asked. 

“It wasn’t my place,” Persephone said in a haughty voice that made Nico suspect that she’d at least been tempted. 

“Well,” Percy said, “if that’s all, then we probably should leave you to whatever you were doing. Thank you for accepting to talk to us.”

“I don’t think you can find out the truth,” Persephone said. “But I hope you do.” She gave the room around her a lingering look. “He loved being in that room.”

She stood up and went to a pot of what Nico realized were anemones, purple, red and pink ones. She tenderly brushed a petal and started murmuring to the flower, looking as though she’d all but forgotten that they were there.

“I assume that’s our cue to leave,” Percy said, and they quietly exited the room. 

The corridor seemed darker by contrast with Persephone’s sitting room. Nico blinked to adjust his vision. 

“It looks like she still loves him, even after all this time,” Percy said, a hint of sadness weighing down his voice.

He must be thinking about Annabeth. Nico felt like he’d swallowed crushed glass and he couldn’t stand the sight of Percy’s heartbroken expression. He started walking back in direction of the entry hall, leaving Percy to trot up after him so they wouldn’t get separated and suffer backlash from their bond.

“You know,” Percy said, sounding normal again, “I wonder if _Aphrodite_ might not be the culprit.”

“Why do you think that?” Nico asked distractedly. 

“Persephone said that Adonis didn’t know the truth about his birth. My memories of that story are hazy, but I remember it being pretty skeevy.”

“Aphrodite made Myrrha, Adonis’ mother, lust after her own father, because Myrrha’s mother had boasted that her daughter was more beautiful than the goddess.”

“Yikes, okay, that’s even more messed up than I remembered. So, imagine if Adonis had learned the truth? Persephone is right that he probably wouldn’t had wanted to be with Aphrodite anymore, if he knew. And Aphrodite doesn’t strike me as someone who’d suffer being humiliated by having a mere mortal break up with her. If he dies a tragic death that results in beautiful flowers, on the other hand…”

“You’re really getting into this investigation thing, aren’t you?” Nico said, amused in spite of himself.

He glanced at Percy in time to see his melancholic smile. “My summer wasn’t exactly going great, so. It’s a distraction.”

Nico almost asked about Annabeth then, but something made him hold back the words and instead he said, “Your idea has some merit. If Aphrodite is responsible for Adonis’ death, then asking us to investigate is a stroke of genius. And by forcing that bond on us, she knows we’ll be in a hurry to find someone to blame to get it over with.”

There was a pause before Percy said, “Right.” He coughed, then asked, “If I’m right, what should we do?”

“I think we should probably go through the motions of interrogating the various suspects anyway. Just trying to learn more. You could be wrong, and then we don’t want to focus on that theory at the exclusion of everything else, and if you’re right, then we don’t want her to know that we’re onto her.”

“Makes sense. Let’s go back to camp for now. Or, no—do you mind taking me to my mom’s? If we have to leave for this investigation, I’d like to let her and my step-father know what I’m doing.”

“Okay,” Nico said.

“Oh, and then you’ll meet my sister! That’s right, you’ve never seen her. You left before she was born.”

“Your sister?”

“My mom and Paul had a baby. Her name is Estelle. She’s one year old, and the most adorable little girl in the world.” 

The warmth of Percy’s smile as he talked about his sister had Nico enthralled for a moment, before he shook himself and offered Percy his hand for traveling. Trying not to focus too much on the weight of Percy’s palm in his, he took a breath and drew the shadows to him. 

They emerged on the fire escape outside of Percy’s room, because that had always been Nico’s destination point whenever he visited Percy—which he hadn’t done for so long that it felt like it had happened in another life. At the time, Nico had been obsessed with making Percy want him as a friend, while at the same time being completely blind as to the reason why it was so terribly important to him. Just thinking about how stupid he’d been made his skin crawl with embarrassment.

“Woo-hoo!” Percy exclaimed as they left the shadows. Shadow-travel didn’t involve any wind, and yet Percy managed to look even more disheveled than usual. “You know, I’d missed this. Shadow-travel is awesome.”

“Awesome,” Nico said. “That’s not a word I often hear used to talk about it.”

The first time he’d taken Jason, after their disastrous encounter with Cupid, Jason had made Nico swear to never make him do it again—of course, Nico had needed to break his word very soon after that, when he and Hazel had taken everyone out of the House of Hades, but it had never happened again. 

“That’s because people don’t know how to have fun,” Percy said. 

“Right.”

The window to Percy’s room was open, probably to let some air in, and they hauled themselves inside.

“Mom?” Percy called, opening the door to the hallway. “It’s me.”

Someone yelped and Nico stepped after Percy, in time to see Sally, Percy’s mother, drop a basket full of dirty laundry.

“Percy!” she said, pressing a hand against her chest. “I didn’t hear the door. Is everything okay? Oh, Nico, hello.” Sally smiled at Nico—she had the same smile as her son, and it made Nico feel small and unworthy. “Well, I guess I know why I didn’t hear the door.”

“Yeah,” Percy said, “we came through the window in my room.”

“Do you two want something to drink? Or to eat? What’s so urgent that you had to shadow-travel here?”

They followed her to the kitchen, and she had them sit at the table and accept a glass of lemonade.

“Tell me,” she said, sitting down with them. “Is everything all right at camp?”

Nico drank lemonade while Percy explained the situation to his mother. The lemonade was cool and not too sweet, most likely the best Nico had ever drunk—not that he had much to compare it to. 

“So, that bond,” Sally said, her brow furrowed. She’d taken in stride the idea that they had to investigate a thousand-years-old murder, but seemed perturbed by the bond. “Are you sure that it will go away once you’re done with your investigation?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Percy said, then looked at Nico as if asking for a confirmation.

“Yes,” Nico said, although he couldn’t help but remember the way Aphrodite had said ‘ _in due time_ ’ and looked at him. 

“What if you never manage to find out the truth? Or what if the gods aren’t satisfied with the truth?”

“She said she was giving us four weeks,” Nico said, his stomach queasy with growing dread.

“Let’s not worry about that right now,” Percy said. “We’ll do what we always do, which is fight our way through and hope for the best.”

Sally smiled and reached out to ruffle Percy’s hair. “Of course you will. Well, be careful, all right? You too, Nico.”

Startled at being addressed, Nico could only nod mutedly. Percy mock-grumbled at his mother’s show of affection, then asked, “Is Estelle having a nap? I wanted her to meet Nico.”

“Yes, she’s—” Muffled crying echoed through the hallway. “And now she’s awake.”

“Did we wake her up?” Nico asked. “I’m sorry if we—”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. She’s slept long enough anyway. She’ll be very excited to meet you. She loves new people.”

Sally left the kitchen and then came back a few minutes later with a little girl in her arms. Estelle didn’t look like her brother at all—it wasn’t as striking as the differences between Nico and Hazel, but it wasn’t obvious that they were related. She had wide blue eyes and fine blond hair that curled around her round face. When she saw Percy she started babbling excitedly, squirming against her mother’s hold. 

“Hey, baby girl,” said Percy as his mother transferred her daughter into his arms. He let out a fake, exaggerated groan, pretending to stumble under her weight. “You’re so big! How did you get so big, huh?” Estelle giggled and grabbed for Percy’s clay-beads necklace, trying to put it in her mouth. “Look, here’s my friend Nico. Say hello to Nico.”

Percy took one of his sister’s chubby hands and waved it at Nico, who waved back awkwardly, trying to ignore the way his heart had skipped a beat when Percy had said, ‘my friend Nico.’ _Damn you, Percy Jackson._

“Uh, hello,” Nico said. What did you say to a child that small? “You don’t look like your brother. It’s a good thing, by the way.”

Percy laughed, which made Estelle laugh too, the sound joyful and vibrant. Percy angled her toward Nico and she turned big, curious eyes at him, before she suddenly hid her face against her big brother’s neck.

“I—Sorry, I’m probably scaring her,” Nico said, taking a step back.

“Dude, don’t be stupid,” Percy said. “She’s just pretending to be shy. You’re not shy, are you, baby girl?”

Estelle coyly turned her face at Nico, the top of her head still nestled in the crook of Percy’s neck. She had let go of Percy’s necklace to put fingers in her mouth, but there was no fear in her eyes. For a moment, the relation to her brother was obvious and striking.

“Do you want to hold her, Nico?” Sally asked.

“No! I mean, I’d probably drop her or something.”

“It’s okay,” Percy said with an amused smile. “I’ll give you a pass on that one. It’s not a requirement to drinking my mom’s lemonade.”

Percy cooed more nonsense in his sister’s ear, then looked back at Nico, his face split in two with a broad grin. Nico hadn’t realized that there’d been something strained and tense about him until it had completely vanished, leaving him relaxed and happy. His mood was infectious and Nico smiled back helplessly.

“Having a sister is awesome, isn’t it?” Percy said.

“Yeah,” Nico said, a lump in his throat. “It is.”

\---

They spent an hour with Sally and Estelle before Percy asked Nico to take them back to Camp Half-Blood. A couple more hours were devoted to going over what they needed to do when they set off on their investigative journey the next day, before it was time for dinner. Nico sat at his own table again; it was close enough to Percy’s that the bond allowed it, and Nico felt it was particularly important right now to establish his independence, or what remained of it. Campfire sing-along was weird, because Nico sat next to Percy, who sat next to Jason, on the other side of whom were Leo, Piper and Annabeth. It was uncomfortable in the extreme to watch Percy and Annabeth keep ignoring each other—or at least pretending to, because Nico caught Percy sneaking several glances in Annabeth’s direction—while their friends ran interference. Nico was annoyed that he had to be stuck in the middle of it, annoyed that he had to watch Percy look so mournful, annoyed that everyone was playing pretends and that he was forced to do the same. _Why_ had Percy and Annabeth broken up, anyway? If they were so unhappy about it, why didn’t they get back together?

By the time they had to go to bed, Nico was positively yearning for some time on his own. Which was when, of course, he remembered that it wasn’t going to be possible. He studied the distance between his cabin and Percy’s for a good long while, simply refusing to accept the idea that they were too far apart for Percy and Nico to sleep in their respective cabins.

“So, what are you guys going to do?” Leo asked them in an idle tone of voice, as if the answer was a simple matter of curiosity to him. “I guess you’ll have to sleep in the same cabin.”

“I don’t know,” Percy said, looking at Nico with visible nervousness. “What do you want to do, Nico?”

“Maybe you could both go to Hermes’ cabin?” Jason said. “That way you wouldn’t—" He shut up when he caught how hard Nico was glaring at him. “Or, you know, maybe we should leave the both of you decide. Time to go to bed. Good night!”

Percy waited for his friends to be out of earshot before he said, “We can sleep in cabin thirteen, if you prefer. I can get a mattress from my cabin and then—”

“No,” Nico said. He could compromise on something that unimportant. “The inside of cabin thirteen is like a mausoleum. I don’t think you would like it much. Let’s go to your cabin, it’s fine.”

“All right.”

They swung by Nico’s cabin to get a mattress, and it was only right when they were about to step inside Percy’s cabin that Nico started to get stupidly nervous. Percy’s cabin, like Jason’s or Nico’s, had become his own private space—at least when his brother Tyson wasn’t there, which was most of the time. And it did feel strongly Percy-like. It was cool inside, but not in a damp, uncomfortable way, with a faint bluish glow that came from nowhere, as though they were standing in an aquarium. The ocean scent that clung to Percy was even stronger in the cabin, to the point that Nico almost expected the sound of waves crashing against the shore. The room was pretty messy, too, with various items of clothing strewn all over the floor and the bed, along with empty wrappers and pieces of armor. 

“Yeah, it’s, um,” Percy said, picking up something that looked suspiciously like a pair of boxer shorts; Nico looked away, his face aflame. “Sorry. I didn’t expect any guest.”

“Yeah, you don’t generally plan to get forcibly bonded to another guy,” Nico said dryly. 

Percy huffed a laugh. “No, you don’t. Do you want to get to bed already? Otherwise we could play cards or something.”

Nico didn’t want sleep as much as he wanted solitude, but felt like it would be a jerk thing to say. “Let’s go to bed. It’s been a long day.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Percy proceeded to unabashedly take off his pants, forcing Nico to hurriedly turn away to do the same. He kept his t-shirt and his underwear on, but still felt so terribly exposed that he might as well have been naked. While he couldn’t see Percy undressing, he wasn’t sure whether Percy had turned his back too, and— _And it doesn’t matter to him, you idiot. He doesn’t care about watching you undress or seeing you in your underwear. You shouldn’t care either._

Nico forced himself to oh so casually turn toward Percy, who was also in his t-shirt and underwear. He was sitting on his bed, one hand buried in his hair, his eyes lost to some silent inner contemplation.

“Tomorrow we’re going to see if we can find Eris, right?” Nico said, mostly because he thought that Percy might have forgotten he was there.

“Yeah,” Percy said; he didn’t look startled to hear Nico speak, so he wasn’t totally lost to his own thoughts. “That’s as good a starting point as any.” He lapsed into broody silence again.

“We’ll figure it out,” Nico said. “And even if we can’t find what happened to Adonis, I’m sure we can get our dads to force Aphrodite to break that bond. You saw how incensed my dad was about it.”

“Hmm, what? Oh, the bond. Yeah, I’m not worried about it. I wasn’t—sorry, I’m just—I kind of have a lot on my mind. Won’t keep me from having your back in this, of course.”

Once again, Nico was nagged by the desire to ask about what was going on with Annabeth. Moreover, he thought that he might be getting hints from Percy that he _wanted_ Nico to ask about it. Maybe he needed to vent his feelings, although Nico didn’t get why Percy would want to talk about this with Nico rather than with any of his friends. Still, that last part was what tipped Nico into finally saying, “It seemed to me—well, it looks like Annabeth and you broke up.”

“Yeah.” Percy sighed the word with such despondency that it made Nico take a step toward him. 

“But—may I ask what happened? You looked—”

“Like such a perfect couple,” Percy said bitterly. “Yeah, I know. I heard all about it from the Aphrodite campers—except for Piper, probably because she knows better—as well as from a few others. Guess we weren’t as perfect as everyone thought, were we?”

“Did she—”

“She was the one to break up with me, yes.”

Percy was looking down at his lap, fingers playing with the hem of his t-shirt. Nico stood in the middle of the cabin without pants, wondering if he could still insist on going to bed right now. 

“That—” he said, scrambling for something to say.

“Sucks?” Percy let out a dry, completely uncharacteristic laugh. “Yeah, it sucks. It sucks hardcore. As to _why_ it happened… Well, it’s not very interesting.” But obviously Percy needed to say it anyway, because he went on, “You know how the plan was to get into New Rome University, live together in New Rome, and then… be happy, I guess? I figured we deserved it. But it turns out that you can love someone with all your heart and not have a great time living with them. We fought a lot. Mostly about stupid things, but also about… more serious stuff. Like school.”

“School?” Nico echoed.

“Yeah. The irony of it is that it was _my_ idea. I’m the one who suggested we both get into that university. And Annabeth is having a blast, because of course she is—she’s dreamed of this her whole life. She was basically _made_ for becoming a college student. But me? I’m studying marine biology because she suggested it. And I thought, ‘why not?’ Me and sea creatures, it does make a certain amount of sense. But it’s—” Here Percy’s breath stuttered like an engine that had trouble starting. “It’s _hard_. There’s a lot of studying and I hate it. I feel like I’m always struggling, barely keeping my head above the water—and not in a fun way. Like I’m just too stupid to manage it.”

Throughout that whole speech Nico just stared at Percy, feeling like a rug had been swept from under his feet. He wasn’t used to hearing Percy be so down on himself. This felt wrong on a level that needed a new word to define it. Nico realized he’d stepped closer to Percy only when his shins hit the edge of the bunk bed. He sat down stiffly and said, “You’re not stupid.”

“Evidence points to the contrary,” Percy said in an oddly garbled voice. His head was down and his hair fell in his eyes, but when he sniffed and wiped at his eyes with his wrist it became obvious that he was crying. “Struggling with school is something that Annabeth fundamentally cannot comprehend. She thought that I just needed to try a little harder. I was already trying as hard as I could! So we fought about that too. Eventually, she decided that we needed to break up before we started hating each other. She’s not even wrong, you know? That’s how you find me with no girlfriend, failing half of my classes, and wondering what’s even the point of going back to school at the end of summer. Pathetic, huh?”

Percy’s shoulders were shaking, now, although he still made little sound, and to watch him like this shattered Nico’s heart into a million pieces. He itched with the need to do _something_ to make Percy’s misery vanish. He had so much power at his fingertips. He would have torn monsters apart, shadow-traveled Percy to the other side of the world, away from any threat. But now it was down to him to comfort Percy and he felt so ill-equipped to handle it. What had Bianca done when he was small and upset? Ruffled his hair—but that might feel condescending. Wrapped an arm around his shoulders and hugged him against herself—Nico’s arm started moving before his conscious mind had caught up to what he was doing, cautiously looping itself around Percy’s trembling shoulders. Simply resting there, not daring to do anything else.

“You’re not pathetic,” Nico said in a very low, barely audible voice. “You couldn’t be further from pathetic.”

A sob tore from Percy, so loud and sudden that it made Nico jump, and then Percy buried his face against Nico’s shoulder, one hand gripping his t-shirt. Nico’s first instinct was to want to shove him away, but he fought it and made himself keep still. His heart thumped hard against his ribs and it felt like all the breath had been stolen from his lungs, like he was standing at the top of a mountain and the air was too thin. Percy muffled his sobs against Nico, wetting his t-shirt in the process, while Nico held him delicately as he would hold a wounded bird in his hands.

Eventually, Percy’s tears dried out and he pulled away. He rubbed his face, grimacing at the streaks of snot on his hands and wiping them against his legs. His eyes were red and puffy, his face blotched and his hair a mess. He said, “Sorry about this” in a hoarse voice, gesturing at the mess he’d made of Nico’s t-shirt. It may have been the least attractive he’d ever looked, and yet Nico was struck by a sudden, overwhelming urge to kiss him. It was so powerful that he dug his fingers in the mattress in a gesture of self-restraint. 

“Thank you,” Percy said in that same ruined voice. “I, uh. Needed a good break down, apparently. Didn’t mean to unload it all on you, but thank you.”

He then gave Nico a small smile, fragile and full of self-deprecation, and Nico completely stopped breathing. He didn’t want to kiss Percy anymore, but to hold him in his arms again and make sure that nothing could ever touch him. _Gods in Olympus_ , he thought, horrified. _I’m in love with him_.

The revelation sent him reeling. He’d been so sure that he was over Percy. During the two years where they hadn’t seen each other, he hadn’t thought about him that much. He’d felt a sort of contentment he wasn’t sure he’d ever known before, even when he was a kid. But then Percy had to show up and bulldozer into his life, breeze past his defenses in the same, effortless way he had in the past. He’d barely even needed two days to lodge himself firmly into Nico’s heart like one of Cupid’s arrows. It was Nico’s curse, apparently, that some part of him would always be drawn to Percy Jackson, a compass needle looking for the north. 

“Nico?” Percy said, a line of concern creasing between his eyebrows. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Nico said feebly. “Uh, are _you_ okay?”

“I will be,” Percy said. “We should really go to sleep, now.”

Nico couldn’t do anything but approve numbly. Percy gave him tissues so he could try to clean his t-shirt and Nico did it absent-mindedly, all of his thoughts and feelings caught in a whirlpool. He’d thought it would be tough, spending a month within forty feet of Percy, but it was when he’d only been afraid of his body’s reactions. Now, though, he wasn’t sure that his _heart_ could take it.

More than ever, he was convinced that part of Aphrodite’s aim was to torture him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said that this fic would ignore _Trials of Apollo_ , but how could I resist Percy with a baby sister? Hope you enjoyed the new chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

Percy woke up with a headache, a stuffy nose, and the feeling that there was sand grinding behind his eyelids. At least he’d slept through the night, which wasn’t a given these days. He looked down next to his bed, and to see the tousled dark head that poked from under the blanket made him smile. Despite his physical discomfort he felt lighter, as if he’d relieved himself of a burden by talking to Nico the night before. As the morning progressed, though, he got the feeling that something was off with Nico. It was really hard to tell for sure, because he didn’t have a sound baseline for what Nico’s normal was. Things had never been easy between them. First, there had been Bianca’s death, which had set the tone for the rest of their interactions: complicated, tense, resentful. After that, between Nico’s crazy plan to plunge Percy into the River Styx, which had made it difficult to enjoy the few times in their acquaintance when Nico had visited him willingly, Nico’s various lies on his father’s behalf, and his bizarre hang-up about Percy, they’d never had what one might call a normal relationship. 

Given all that, it was surprising how easy it had been to talk to him about Annabeth. It made Percy cringe to remember how he’d blubbered like a little kid, but Nico had been rather cool about it. Of course, he could now be feeling awkward to have witnessed Percy completely fall apart. Or maybe he was wondering if he had a chance with Annabeth but didn’t dare try because of Percy. Percy thought about telling Nico not to mind him and give it a shot, but he couldn’t bring himself to say the words. He didn’t think Annabeth would go for it anyway, but he wasn’t ready to even think about another guy asking her out.

“Nico, man, are you listening?”

Nico jumped. “Yes?” he said, his intonation slightly questioning, as though he feared a trick question. “Yes,” he repeated more firmly. “You said something about Eris and customer service.”

Percy pressed his lips in a tight line. The thing about his theories on why Nico acted strange was that they didn’t quite match Nico’s behavior. Nico didn’t really act awkward or embarrassed; he didn’t seem to think he had to handle Percy with kid gloves and he wasn’t particularly looking in Annabeth’s direction—or pointedly not looking at her, as Percy himself did. He was acting _nervous_. On edge. He also looked tired, as though he hadn’t had much sleep, and his eyes were shadowed in a way that was reminiscent of the haggard kid he’d been after his sister’s death. Was he hiding something? Percy almost asked him point blank about it, but then changed his mind. Nico was likely to bulk against a direct approach and clam up even tighter. And with a few years of hindsight, Percy could admit that whenever Nico had lied to him in the past it had never been with the intention to hurt him, so he had to trust that whatever was going on, they could handle it when it came to light.

“Yeah,” he said. “I was saying that I remember Hermes saying one time that Eris handled his customer service. I don’t know if that’s still the case, but if we can talk to him we might have insight as to where we can find her. And since he was one of Aphrodite’s lovers, we can also ask him about his alibi or something.” 

“So you think that we should go talk to Hermes campers,” Nico said.

“Exactly,” Percy said.

They’d just finished breakfast and campers were scattering to attend various activities. Percy caught sight of the curly mops of hair from the Stoll brothers—like Percy, the brothers now both attended college and only came to camp during the summer. They’d given up the position of head of the Hermes cabin to one of their siblings who was there all year round, but they were the oldest Hermes campers here and the most likely to know the answer to their question. Percy started to walk faster to catch up with them, when someone tapped on his shoulder.

“Percy, wait.” It was Leo, who acknowledged Nico with a nod before telling Percy, “I talked to my dad about the thing with Adonis.”

“Okay,” Percy said, surprised that Leo had already gotten around to doing it. “What did he say?”

“That he didn’t have anything to do with it, of course. But he also said that right before Adonis’ death, Aphrodite was in a foul mood. Normally, when it was her turn to spend time with Adonis, Dad wouldn’t see her at all. But she actually visited him a few times when she should have been with her lover, complaining about ‘the fickleness of mortals.’ And, you know how Zeus said that Adonis would go with Aphrodite for a third of the year, with Persephone for another third, and could decide what to do with the last third? Well, he usually chose to stay with Aphrodite for that last third. But the last year of his life he went somewhere else. Dad knows about it because that was one of the things she complained about during her visits.”

“Where did he go, then?” Nico asked.

Leo shrugged. “Dad didn’t ask. He had no reason to care. But I thought that you might want to hear about it.”

“Thanks, Leo,” Percy said, patting him on the shoulder.

“No problem, dude,” Leo said. He gave Percy a somewhat uncertain smile. “We’re cool, right?”

Percy swallowed against a surge of guilt. He hadn’t exactly avoided Leo since the beginning of summer, but he’d probably been a little distant. He’d had his reasons, but it would suck if Leo thought that Percy was mad at him for something. 

“Of course we are,” he said, giving Leo his most reassuring smile. “I’ve been a little—well, not myself, lately, but this doesn’t have anything to do with anyone but me.”

“Yeah,” Leo said. He glanced at Nico, as if he wanted to say more but wasn’t sure about doing it in front of him. “Good luck to you two. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson have nothing on you.”

He gave them both a thumb up and ran off. Percy sighed once he was out of earshot, shoulders slumping.

“What was that about?” Nico asked. 

“Nothing, it’s just—Leo broke up with Calypso. Probably. _He_ claims that they’re merely ‘doing their own thing for a while’ but anytime we’ve been alone with each other since the beginning of summer, all he’s wanted to do is to complain about girls. I don’t want to use my break-up with Annabeth as a pretext for manly bonding. I’d just really rather it had not happened at all.”

“Oh. Huh. I’d only heard second-handed reports from Jason on how Leo freed Calypso from her island. And let everyone mourn him for a while.” Nico’s face darkened with anger for a moment. “It didn’t occur to me to find it weird that Calypso wasn’t there with him.”

“Yeah, at first he was trying to pretend everything is okay, but I don’t think it is. And I really didn’t feel like dealing with his problems in top of mine.”

“Understandable.” Nico paused and then said, “Just so you know, I’m Sherlock Holmes. You’re Dr. Watson.”

“Hey!” Percy exclaimed in mock indignation, although in truth he was relieved to see Nico joking. Whatever was going on with him couldn’t be too bad if he was able to relax a little. “Who came up with the theory that Aphrodite might be behind Adonis’ death? Sounds even more likely with what Hephaistos said, doesn’t it?”

A smile floated across Nico’s lips. “Maybe. Let’s talk to the Stolls as we planned to.”

Travis and Connor were very agreeable to answering Percy and Nico’s questions. It also appeared that news of Percy and Nico’s mission had gone around camp already. “Murder mystery!” Travis exclaimed. “That’s really cool. Hey, is it true what I heard about you two—” He wriggled his eyebrows. “—being bonded by Aphrodite?”

Nico’s face turned crimson and Percy resisted the urge to punch Travis in the face. “You make it sound like a euphemism, which it’s not. Aphrodite put a bond on us that keeps us from getting too far from each other. That’s all. It’ll vanish when we’ll be done with the mission.”

“Isn’t it awkward for—” Travis started, but his question ended in a ‘ _umph_ ’ when his brother elbowed him in the ribs. 

“If you want to talk to Dad,” Connor said, “the best way is to call the Hermes Express’ line.”

“How can I do that?”

“Just pick up any public phone, put a drachma in it and say, ‘ _O Hermes, God of Messengers, please hear my request.’_ You can ask whoever answers to let you talk to Dad.”

“You also have to stand on one leg, turn three times on yourself with your arms folded like chicken wings,” Travis added.

“Sure,” Percy said. “Well, thank you for the information, guys.”

Percy and Nico spent the next hour packing for a few days—they didn’t know how long they’d be gone and where their investigation would lead them, and Percy had done enough quests to know that it was better to be ready for anything, but also that chances were that he would lose his backpack at some point. Magic made it so he couldn’t lose Riptide or Nico, though, and there was comfort to be found in both of those thoughts. The packing process was made longer by the fact that they had to accompany each other to their respective cabin to pack, rather than split up and meet again when they were done, but Percy was getting used to the hassle. It wasn’t so bad. 

Nico shadow-traveled them to Montauk and they spent a while looking for a phone booth. When that didn’t pan out, they went to a gas station and asked if they had a payphone. The guy at the gas station was in that uncertain age range that was neither old nor young, and he looked bored beyond belief. He half-heartedly waved at a corner of the shop where an old payphone, black and bulky, hung on the wall. 

They thanked him and headed toward it. Percy picked up the handset while Nico angled himself with his back on the rest of the shop, making a shield of his body to keep the conversation as private as possible. Not that the gas station clerk seemed to pay them any attention; he was hunched over his smartphone, fingers tapping the screen. Percy got a golden drachma out of his pocket, then looked at the coin slot with a frown: the drachma was a lot thicker and larger than what the thin slot was meant to accommodate. He shouldn’t have worried, though, because when he pressed the coin against the slot and pushed, it slid inside like a knife into soft butter. Percy brought the handset to his face and whispered into it, “O Hermes, God of Messengers, please hear my request.”

He didn’t do the rest of what Travis had suggested, of course, but as he listened intently and couldn’t hear anything, not even a normal ringing tone, he started to wonder whether Connor hadn’t been pulling his leg too, but more subtly than his brother. 

“I—” he said, but broke off when a chipper voice said in the phone, “ _Hermes Express, how may we help you today?_ ”

Percy recognized Martha’s voice, and wondered for a moment how the snake could talk on the phone, then figured that from the moment he’d made his request this had probably stopped being a normal phone. 

“Hey, Martha,” he said, “It’s Percy. Percy Jackson,” he added, as it’d been a while since he’d seen Hermes and his snakes, and he couldn’t assume that he was the only Percy to call the Hermes Express Line.

“Oooh, Percy,” Martha said, “how are you doing, dear? Do you need to have some package delivered?”

“Not exactly. I—We—” Percy amended, glancing at Nico, who stood next to him and seemed to be listening to the conversation. “—need to talk to Hermes. We’ve been given a mission of sort by Aphrodite, so it’s kind of urgent. We’re working on a deadline.” 

“Hmm, I see. Give me a moment.” Percy waited for a few long seconds, twisting the phone cord around his finger. “Hermes will be with you shortly, dear.”

“Where can—” Percy started to ask, but there was a click and the ringing tone was back.

Percy hanged up the phone and they said good bye to the clerk, who made a vague humming sound in response. They stepped outside the station and Percy looked around. He didn’t know when to expect Hermes, but ‘shortly’ could mean anything for a god. The air smelled of gasoline and salt, and it was pleasantly warm, with a nice breeze that blew Percy’s hair in his eyes. He caught Nico looking at him with a strange expression on his face and raised an eyebrow at him.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Nico said, looking away quickly. “Do you think that Hermes will come meet us here, or—”

“I think—” A brown truck turned around the corner and drove toward them; Percy recognized it even before he could see ‘HERMES EXPRESS’ written on the side. “Well, there he is.”

The truck parked next to one of the pumps and Hermes got off from the driver’s side. He was wearing the same brown outfit—shirt, shorts and cap—that he had the time he’d asked Percy and Annabeth to get back his Staff for him. _Hey, look at you, able to think back on a date with Annabeth with only a moderate urge to bawl your eyes out!_

Instead of walking up to them, Hermes tranquilly started to pump gas into his truck, acting like he hadn’t seen them. Did magic trucks that belonged to gods even _needed_ gas? Percy wasn’t sure what was up with the god’s strange behavior, but he wasn’t about to be ignored, so he headed for the truck with Nico on his heels. 

“Hello,” he said once he was close enough. “Nice truck. It just so happens that I’m in need of a delivery service.”

“Oh, are you?” Hermes said, giving Percy a quick, disinterested glance. “I’m almost done here, but if you go to the diner at the end of the road, the Sloppy Tuna, and wait for me, we can meet there and talk about your delivery.”

Percy shared a look with Nico, whose face was scrunched with suspicion. But Percy had never had any cause to be wary of Hermes, so he shrugged and said, “All right, we’ll meet you there.”

They walked down the street at a leisurely pace, as if they were just going to the beach like the packs of vacationists in bathing suits that carried beach bags and surfing boards. Percy wished he were one of them, actually; he’d never gone surfing, and as a son of Poseidon this was undoubtedly his duty to remedy to that. _Can you surf really well?_ he remembered a much younger Nico asking him the first time they’d met.

“I’ve come across Hermes a few times,” Nico said, “only in passing, when he comes to the Underworld, but don’t you think he was acting strange?”

“Yeah, but Hermes is a cool guy—for a god. I really don’t think he means us harm.”

“If you say so,” Nico said, but Percy could tell he was uneasy. 

In this sunny weather, in the middle of people dressed lightly and colorfully for the beach, Nico stood out like a sore thumb with his dark clothes and pale skin, and the general aura of dread that he carried about him. Would he enjoy going to the beach? He’d travelled from Italy to the US as a child, so he must have seen the ocean before, not to mention that he could go anywhere in the world in a whisper of shadow. What did Nico do for fun, anyway? 

Percy opened his mouth to ask him, when Nico pointed his finger and said, “I guess that’s the place.”

The Sloppy Tuna was a rather large building covered with wooden tiles, with a terrace tucked on one end. It was encircled by a wooden fence and a row of surfing boards were planted next to the entrance, next to a sign that showed the name of the diner with a drawing of a tuna fish wearing sunglasses and holding a surfing board under its fin.

“Looks like my kind of place,” Percy said with a grin, which earned him a soft snort from Nico. 

They got a table inside far from the bar, where people coming back from the beach and people going to the beach were having drinks. Percy only glanced at the menu before ordering a burger. He tended not to have seafood as a general principle; it was awkward to eat something that you could have a conversation with. Nico only got fries and he picked at them gloomily. 

“Is that going to be enough?” Percy asked doubtfully. He remembered being sixteen, a mere couple of years ago, and being ravenously hungry all the time—not that it had changed much. Not to mention that Nico was skinny. Maybe hanging out with skeletons had given him a skewed impression of what a person’s healthy figure should be. 

“Yeah, I’m not very hungry,” Nico said. He glanced over Percy’s shoulder, where the entrance was. “Here he comes.”

Hermes sat beside Percy, across the table from Nico. He had a messenger bag slung over his shoulder that he put down at his feet. None of the mortals in the diner would even give him a second look, but Percy’s eye had been trained over the years by many encounters with gods and he could see now what he hadn’t been able to see when he was younger: Hermes, contrary to some of the other gods, wasn’t insanely beautiful, but there was something a little too perfectly defined about him, as though he were a HD character walking through a scene set at a lower resolution. 

“Martha told me you two were on a mission for Aphrodite,” he said. “I think I can guess what this is about.”

“You were there when Eris tossed her apple,” Percy said.

“Yes. It was quite the mess,” Hermes said, turning the salt shaker he’d just grabbed between his hands. “Zeus had to hide under the table when Aphrodite and Persephone really started to get into it.”

“Aphrodite wants us to find the truth about Adonis’ death,” Percy said. “We want to talk to Eris, just to ask her what gave her the idea of pushing that specific button. We figure she might know something about what really happened.”

“Also, you were one of Aphrodite’s lovers, weren’t you?” Nico said. “What did you think about her spending so much time with a mortal?”

Hermes threw his head back and laughed. “I was never under any illusion about Aphrodite. Being jealous on her account would be as useless as being jealous that the sun doesn’t shine for you only. As for Eris, I don’t know where she is. She left me a few years ago; she said that she was ‘meant for more’ and went away to look for it. I know she went back to her parents for a while—”

“Yeah,” Percy said, grimacing. “We’ve, uh, we’ve met.”

“As far as I know, she isn’t there anymore,” Hermes said, looking at Percy with sympathy. “I can’t tell you where she is now, but I can provide you with a way of finding her.”

“Oh?” Percy said.

Hermes leaned over the table, signaling to Percy and Nico that they should huddle with him. “I have something that will help you in the bag I put on the floor. Take it with you when you leave, but don’t open it where mortals can see.”

“Why make it such a mystery?” Nico said in an irritated whisper. “Why won’t you just tell us what it is?”

“To name it is to give it power, son of Hades,” Hermes said cryptically. “You have to be careful when you handle what I’m leaving with you. Don’t keep it in sight for too long.”

A waiter came to ask them if they needed anything and Hermes seemed to take it as his cue to leave. As he’d said he would, he left his messenger bag on the floor next to the chair he’d occupied. Percy’s fingers itched with the desire to open it now, but he didn’t take Hermes’ warning lightly. 

“Is it just me or did that just sound like a drug deal?” he said, taking a bite from his burger. 

“I don’t like being left in the dark,” Nico muttered, angrily munching on his fries. “Whatever is in this bag doesn’t feel right. I—I don’t like it.”

“You can feel it?” Percy asked. Nico nodded mutedly. 

Percy gave the bag a closer look. It was made of beige canvas and the words ‘Hermes Express’ were written on the flapping part in big black letters. Otherwise, there was nothing noteworthy about it and Percy didn’t get any weird vibe from it. He glanced at Nico, who was staring intently at a spot on the table, probably where he would have been able to see the bag if he’d had the ability to see through objects. If Nico could sense what was in the bag and Percy couldn’t, then it must have a link to the Underworld. Nico’s unease had to be catching, because Percy’s stomach was doing flips and his burger rested like a block of stone in his guts. _Styx, Hermes, what did you just give us?_

After lunch, they took the bag and tried to think of a place where they could safely look inside. All of Percy’s instincts drew him toward the beach and the sea, where he was at his strongest, but at that time of the day it would be crowded. In the end, they went to the diner’s bathroom, going into a stall together. Percy locked the door behind them, hoping no one would wonder at the two pairs of feet visible from under the door.

“All right,” he said, turning toward Nico.

He must have surprised him when he moved, because Nico startled and stepped back, hitting the back of his knees against the toilet behind him. Percy caught him by the shoulder before he could lose his balance and fall over the toilet bowl. 

“Careful there,” he whispered, not wanting to draw attention to their stall.

Nico shrugged off his hand but gave him a terse ‘thank you,’ a blush rising to his cheek. Percy blinked at him, a little confused at his reaction. 

“Dude, you okay?”

“Fine. I just don’t like tight spaces.”

“Oh.” Oh, man, why hadn’t Percy thought of this? After spending days in a jar in a state of near-death, anyone would have been liable to develop claustrophobia. “Okay, let’s just have a quick look,” he said. “Ready?”

“Not really, but I want to know what this is.”

Percy opened the bag and they both looked inside. “Styx,” Percy swore. “I did _not_ expect this.”

All the bag contained was one apple. It was bigger than any apple Percy had ever seen, almost the size of a soccer ball, but it didn’t weigh has much as it should have. It was the color of dull bronze and Percy couldn’t help but reach to touch it, wanting to check if it was made of metal. 

“Don’t touch it!” Nico hissed, slapping Percy’s hand away. “If this is the Apple of Discord, then we don’t know what it could do to us!”

“Okay, but I don’t think Hermes would have given it to us if just touching could—”

As he was talking, they heard the bathroom door open, voices ringing out as people came in. Nico cut Percy in the mid-sentence by slapping a hand over his mouth; surprised, Percy let out a muffled sound of protest. Nico had gone as still as the stone statues Medusa used to create, his arm rigid, his hand keeping Percy’s mouth implacably shut. His skin was cool and his fingers curled around Percy’s jaw.

The guys who’d just come in—two of them, by the sound of it—kept chatting while they peed. 

“You seeing Amber tonight?”

“Dunno, she said she might be going out with her sister.”

“Want to go for a midnight swim with my girl and her friends?”

They didn’t seem to be in any hurry, and as Percy waited, trapped in the stall with Nico, he thought that no one had ever taken that long to pee. Time stretched out indefinitely; Percy was acutely aware of his own heartbeat, of the way his hands hung by his sides, of a strand of hair that tickled his forehead. He was very aware of Nico, too. The two of them were standing so close that Percy could smell Nico, clean sweat, cheap soap and something else underneath. Percy doubted that Nico wore cologne or aftershave, so this must be his natural body odor, the one Percy had heard pegasi complain about. They’d said he smelled like death, and it did remind Percy of decomposing leaves, but in a not unpleasant, forest ground kind of way. Percy could hear Nico’s breathing, not overly loud but a little too fast. He was keeping his head down, so Percy couldn’t read his expression, but the thought popped in his mind: _he’s panicking._ This must be the claustrophobia getting to him. Percy wanted to suggest that they leave the stall, and to Hades with what the two guys who were now washing their hands might think they’d been doing, but Nico’s iron grip on him made it impossible to speak. 

Just as Percy was thinking that he should try wrestling out of it, the guys left the bathroom and the door clicked shut behind them. Nico didn’t move, though, frozen in position, as if he were caught in a trance. Percy tried to speak but could only make humming sounds of discontent, which Nico didn’t seem to hear. Patience wearing thin, Percy pushed his tongue past his lips, getting a salty lick of Nico’s palm. Nico yelped and jerked his hand away as though he’d been burned. 

“Why did you—”

“We can get out,” Percy said. “They’ve left.”

Nico shoved past Percy and burst out of the stall. He went to the sink and washed his hands, which Percy thought was a little overboard. He was inclined to cut Nico some slack, since he suspected that his friend had been close to a panic attack. Nico splashed water on his face and then turned off the water, leaning against the sink for a moment while Percy waited for him, not getting closer because he feared that it would make Nico feel crowded. 

“Are you okay to go?” he asked after a moment.

Nico turned around, his face beet-red, probably from embarrassment. He wasn’t the sort of guy who liked to show weakness, especially in front of Percy, who already seemed to make him uncomfortable for a reason that Percy still hadn’t figured out. 

“Yes,” he said tightly. “Better if we take that thing—” He waved at the messenger bag that Percy was still holding. “—away from mortals.”

“I don’t know what Hermes hopes we can do with the apple,” Percy said as they were leaving the Sloppy Tuna.

“I’m not sure, but I think I can use it to shadow-travel to Eris,” Nico said.

“Oh, really? That would be great.”

“I don’t know for sure. I’ve never tried to aim for a person rather than for a place.” Nico didn’t look so flushed anymore and seemed to relax as he spoke. “I always have better luck going to a place I already know. If it’s a place I’ve never been then it’s very hit-or-miss, and of course it depends also on how much shadow there is at my destination. I think that if I focused on the apple, wanting to find its owner, then—But we shouldn’t do that where other people might see.”

To Percy’s regret, they had to walk away from the beach, where most of the tourists would be. The buildings were spread out, the streets were broad, and there weren’t a lot of places where they could get out of sight. They finally found a parking lot and crouched between two SUVs. Nico’s hand hovered over the messenger bag for a moment before he took a sharp breath, plunged his hand in the bag and got the apple out, handling it with obvious reluctance. 

“Okay,” he said, then held out his hand to Percy. “Let’s see where this gets us.”

Shadow-travel was like riding a rollercoaster that was spinning circles in deep space. This time, not knowing where they would get out added spice to the whole thing. When they left the shadow, Percy shoved the hand that wasn’t holding onto Nico in his pocket, grabbing for Riptide. He didn’t need to worry, though, because they were standing under a tree in a residential street, so similar to the place they’d left that Percy wondered for a moment if they’d even traveled at all. But he couldn’t feel the sea nearby, so they weren’t in Montauk anymore. 

Nico put the apple back in the messenger bag and looked around. “We’re still in the US,” he said. “A little further west, but far from the West coast.”

“How do you know that?” Percy asked. 

“I always know where I am, more or less.”

“Do you know where Eris is? Can you, I don’t know, feel her?”

“I don’t even know if she’s there.”

Percy spun to face him. “Wait—I thought the apple was supposed to lead us to Eris?”

“I said I _thought_ it might. But maybe this just took us to the closest place where she’s recently been. I told you I’ve never done this before!”

Percy contained an annoyed reply. “Fine,” he said a little testily. “We should walk around, try to figure out where we are.”

Without the nice sea breeze that they’d had in Montauk the heat was more stifling here—wherever _here_ was—and after about ten minutes of walking aimlessly under an unrelenting sun, Percy’s t-shirt was soaked with sweat. He took the hem and pulled at the bottom of his shirt to fan himself.

“If we looked at the apple as we walk, maybe it would give us some indication about Eris’ presence,” he suggested.

Nico must have been just as hot, because his face was flushed again. “I don’t think we should have it out if we can help it.” It looked like he was avoiding looking at Percy, and Percy, irritated, was about to call him out on it when Nico added, “But maybe just keep the bag open so I can take a peek at it.”

The neighborhood they were in was fairly quiet, with only the odd car driving by and the occasional passer-by. A young woman pushing a stroller was coming the other way from them on the sidewalk, and Percy waited until she was gone before he opened the bag. The apple looked unchanged, but as they resumed walking it started to glow faintly in a slow pulse. 

“Interesting,” Nico said. 

Turning right at the next crossroad made the apple’s glow slow and dim even further, so they backtracked until it was brighter again. Using the apple as a beacon, they reached a more peopled area that had shops and diners. Most of the cars had Tennessee license plates, so at least they knew in what state they were.

Nico suddenly stopped in his tracks, looking around him with a frown. He glanced in the bag again, before gesturing at Percy to close it. 

“I think—” he said slowly, before pointing at what looked like a coffee shop on the other side of the street, its brick front painted brown. On the window was written in white lettering, ‘ _Cofee To Die For. Best in Nashville_ ’. “There. Let’s try there.”

“Hey, now we know we’re Nashville,” Percy said. “And that the owner can’t spell.”

They crossed the street and entered the coffee shop. It smelled strongly of coffee inside and it was also surprisingly dark, given the big windows at the front and how sunny it was outside. Two women were cleaning tables while another was rummaging behind the counter at the back of the shop. 

“Hello,” Percy said. Whether or not they would find Eris here, coffee sounded like a tempting idea. “We—"

The woman behind the counter straightened up. “Demigods!” she shrieked. “Percy Jackson!”

“Demigods!” the other two echoed stridently.

They started to change, leathery wings shooting out from behind their backs, yellow fangs growing from their mouths, their hands becoming hooked and clawed. The one behind the counter changed her face for one that was awfully familiar to Percy.

“Oh, gods,” he said. “Not _you_ again.”

Alecto—formerly Mrs. Dodd, Percy’s math teacher from when he was twelve—made her flaming whip clack in the air. Percy sidestepped instinctively, narrowly avoiding it. 

“We’re not here to fight!” he said, but he’d taken Riptide out and was holding it defensively. “We only want to—”

The lash from one of the other Furies came at him and he had to duck and roll out of the way. He sprang back to his feet, sword in hand, and was getting ready to attack when a voice cut through the air like a shard of ice, “That will be _enough_.”

Turning around, Percy was surprised to see that Nico was the one who’d just spoken. Simultaneously he realized that the temperature in the shop, which had been AC-cool before, had dropped drastically. A white sheen of frost was spreading out from Nico’s feet and it had gotten so dark inside that it looked like a curtain had been drawn over the windows. The Furies had stopped fighting and were looking at their master’s son warily.

“My father will hear about this,” Nico said in a low, menacing voice that Percy didn’t recognize. 

His heart pounded heavily, even though he wasn’t moving anymore, and it took him a moment to understand that it was from _fear_. The hand holding Riptide was sweating so much he thought the sword would slip from his grip. 

“Master Nico,” one of them said, “We didn’t see you there—”

“This is no excuse!” Nico snapped, and Percy could have sworn that the shadows around him jumped. The Furies whimpered and cowered behind the tables. “Percy and I are on a mission and you’re wasting our time. Percy is my ally and my—my friend. You won’t attack him again.”

It would have been more heartwarming if Nico hadn’t tripped over the word ‘friend’, but at least it had the desired effect on the Furies. Their whips disappeared, although they kept their winged forms. At that moment, the bell from the entrance door jingled and a young woman came in. Whatever illusion the Mist was letting her see made her froze up and stutter, “Uh, sorry, I didn’t—” She turned on her heels and left hurriedly, the door slamming behind her. 

“All right,” Nico said, his voice a little more normal. “Can we talk, now?”

“Yes, Master Nico,” the Furies said in unison.

The temperature went back up and the frost melted away. Sunlight flowed once more through the windows and the fear that had gripped Percy’s heart vanished, although it left him a little shaky. 

“We’re looking for Eris,” Nico said, “and we thought she might be here. Is she? We just want to talk to her.”

The Furies shared a long look, and one of them—Percy could never remember how the ones who weren’t Alecto were called—finally said, “Our sister was here, yes. But she’s left. She’s felt the demigods coming and she ran away. She doesn’t want to talk to _you_.” The Fury belatedly redirected her glare so it would only target Percy. 

“Do you know where she went?”

“No, we don’t, Master Nico. She didn’t tell us. She left in a hurry.”

“Thank you,” Nico said in a politely measured tone. “Oh, and we’d like coffee, please.”

He walked to a table and drew a chair for himself. Percy would have preferred to drink his coffee from a Fury-free coffee shop, but he could appreciate the fact that this was meant as a show of power, so he sat down at the table with Nico.

“That was something,” he said. 

Nico ducked his head. “Don’t make fun of me,” he said.

“I’m not!”

It was weird to think back on the fear he’d felt earlier, looking at Nico. He could remember the way his heart had fluttered with the feeling in a terribly vivid way. He didn’t know if it was that Nico had projected fear, as his dad did, or if Percy had been genuinely frightened, but that made him feel both uncomfortable and impressed. He tried to lean into the ‘impressed’ part harder—he didn’t want to make things with Nico more awkward than they were. 

“That was really badass,” he offered.

“I didn’t really do anything,” Nico said. “It’s just that my dad is their boss.”

“You’re selling yourself short. Your dad wasn’t there, right now. _You_ were.”

Nico gave Percy a long look, as if he didn’t know what to do with the compliment. “Yeah, right,” he said. 

They didn’t discuss what they should do, mindful of the Furies’ presence. The coffee was excellent, but Percy drunk it in a hurry, even though it was a little too hot, so eager he was to leave the place. The Furies weren’t the most frightening monsters he’d ever faced, but they were the earliest, and that combined with the memory of some nightmarish Math classes made him want to put some distance between himself and the winged ladies. 

“So Eris could feel us coming,” Percy said once they were outside, standing in the baking heat. “That’s going to make it harder for us.”

“Maybe she could feel the apple,” Nico said. “Which makes it a double-edged tool, but we don’t have any other options. The fact that she doesn’t want to talk to us makes it look like she does have something to hide. I guess we’ll just have to be faster than she is. Take her by surprise.”

Percy grimaced. “That’s not going to be easy. But yeah, it’s odd that she took off like that.”

“Let’s give it another try, then.” 

Percy took the hand that was offered to him; it was so cold it didn’t feel like it belonged to a living person. Percy closed his eyes and let Nico wrap them in shadows.


	5. Chapter 5

The following week gave Nico flashbacks of his desperate journey with Reyna, Coach Hedge and the _Athena Parthenos_. In most ways, it wasn’t nearly as bad. Nico was more resilient now, they jumped shorter distances, and he didn’t have to drag two other people and a gigantic statue along with him. Still, after a few days of trying to catch up with Eris, inevitably finding that she’d already bailed and then jumping again in the hope that they could surprise her, he started to be plagued by the same constant exhaustion that he’d felt then. On top of that, the lack of personal time was wearing him down. Nico was used to being alone, so the situation would have been hard on him even if his companion had been anyone other than Percy Jackson—the fact that it was Percy, though, added an extra layer of torture. It meant watching Percy walk out of the bathroom in his underwear, his hair wet from the shower. It meant Percy making stupid jokes and then turning to Nico, his smile encouraging him to laugh too. It meant seeing him fight, muscles rolling under his t-shirt, daring and strong and powerful. It meant catching him looking through the window, his mask of cheerfulness slipping, his eyes sad and weary, and knowing he was thinking of Annabeth. 

To make things worse, maybe because the close quarters were getting to him too, Percy got more short-tempered as the week went by. Since Nico’s temper was also on a hair-trigger they ended up fighting about the stupidest things, like who should have first shot at the shower, what to get for lunch, what channel they should watch on TV, and, more seriously, what they should do so Eris would stop slipping between their fingers. On one memorable occasion, they got into such a screaming match that they got kicked out of the motel where they’d stopped for the night and had to sleep under a bridge. Despite the tension between them, they had no choice but to go on. The only thing they seemed to agree on was that Eris knew something and that they had to catch her. 

On the eighth day after leaving Camp Half-Blood, when they walked out of the cool protection of the shadow for the second time that day, the first thing that Nico saw was a vast expanse of water. They were standing at the top of a rocky cliff that overlooked the water, and at their backs a forest of evergreen was spread out. For a moment Nico wondered if this was the ocean, but it didn’t smell like the sea and his inner sense of their location told him that they weren’t on either coasts. 

“This is Lake Huron,” Percy said.

“You’ve been there before?” Nico asked.

“Not really,” Percy said. A gust of wind made a mess of his hair and he brushed stray strands off his eyes. “But you have your inner compass, and I know bodies of water.”

Nico looked away. “Eris must be somewhere around here, or at least she was. Let me see the apple.”

“I don’t think we should use the apple anymore,” Percy said.

Nico bit his lip, trying to rein in his irritation. How was it that one moment he could barely look at Percy for fear that he would start blushing, and the next all he wanted was to punch him in the mouth? He hated the Apple of Discord, but it wasn’t like they had a lot to work on and he hated even more the idea that they’d wasted a whole week on a goose chase.

“Why?” he asked. Simple one-word questions were the best way to avoid them fighting again.

“I don’t know, man, I—” Percy shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looking uneasy. “I feel like, like it’s doing something to me, and I—”

“Then what do you suggest we do to find Eris? The apple is the only thing that—"

“ _You_ were the one who was worried about the apple in the first place! I—"

Something exploded in the water below and a large shadow burst out of it, jumping in the air, so big it obscured the sun for a moment. Water rained from it over Nico and Percy.

“Nico, look out!”

Percy pushed Nico down to the ground, saving him from getting smashed in the head by the end of a tail. Nico scrambled back on his feet, hands and knees stinging, in time to see Percy take a swan dive into the lake. He disappeared into the water with barely a ripple and Nico was hit by a dizzy spell that made him tumble back to his knees.

_We’re too far apart! Percy is going to pass out in the water—_

—and drown. Percy could breathe under water, but he had to be conscious for that. Nico’s vision had blurred but he couldn’t see Percy swimming back up. A large shadow was moving in the water, and when it breached the surface again Nico identified it as a sea serpent, its long sinuous body a glittering blue, wicked-looking fangs poking out from its maw and mad yellow eyes burning with anger. 

“Percy, you moron!” Nico shouted, blinking against the dark spots that danced in front of his eyes. “Percy, answer me! _Shit_. Shit, shit, shit.”

He had to get down too, but he was a very poor swimmer and couldn’t do Percy’s water acrobatics. Instead he crawled to the shadows of the trees planted at the top of the cliff and melted into them, right as the sea serpent’s cry echoed in the air. He emerged on a rock at the bottom of the cliff and clung to it, ears ringing and his head spinning, the combination of shadow-travel and the backlash from the bond almost knocking him out. For a moment, he had no idea of what was happening around him. Water splashed, drenching him to the bone, and the serpent screamed the piercing shriek of a wounded animal. 

Once he was sure his head wouldn’t drop if he opened his eyes, Nico looked up and saw the bluish scaled belly of the serpent fly over him. He cricked his neck to look even higher and saw Percy clutched to the monster’s neck, legs dangling from it. The serpent shrieked again and dove back into the water, maybe hoping this would get it rid of the annoying demigod. Its tail whipped in the air as he plunged, and Nico, reluctant to be left out of the fight, unsheathed his sword and jumped at the serpent.

“Whoa, whoa!”

The serpent’s scaled body was slippery and Nico found himself sliding, his hands and feet scraping for something to hold. In desperation he planted his sword into the serpent, right under one of the scales. The monster went absolutely mad at that, and for the next seconds, minutes, _hours_ , Nico could do nothing but cling for dear life as the serpent contorted like a giant worm, tossing and jerking, its screams loud enough to split the sky in two. A wave slapped Nico in the face, leaving him spluttering and coughing, nearly blind from the water that ran down his face. 

Then the serpent plunged again, dragging Nico down with it to the depths of the lake. He only had the time to take a gulp of air before he was immersed. Panic overwhelmed him but he kept clinging to his sword even as the water pressed down on him from everywhere. His lungs were burning, his vision darkening. A detached part of him noted with curiosity that he must be drowning. And if he was drowning, then he must be _dying_ , and how interesting was it to finally go through that moment of transition between life and afterlife? This was his last fully-formed thought before his fingers let go of the handle of his sword and he started drifting away. Peace and darkness took over his mind, and he welcomed them both as friends.

Strong arms suddenly locked around him, which jerked him back to consciousness. Nico opened his eyes and found Percy’s face so close to his that he started flailing instinctively.

“Easy,” Percy said soothingly, unfazed by Nico’s struggling. “It’s okay, you’re okay.”

They were still underwater, was Nico’s sluggish thought. It was dark and cold, and he could feel that unyielding pressure all around him, the strain in his lungs almost unbearable. So why could he hear Percy talk so clearly?

“You can take a breath,” Percy said. “I created an oxygen bubble around your head. It’s safe.”

Nico could feel the water around him and it went against all of his body’s instincts to breathe in, but he did. As scrambled as his brain was by the lack of oxygen, he still knew that Percy wouldn’t let him drown. He expected water to go up his nose but it didn’t, and the sweet, sweet relief of oxygen in his lungs was so great he almost passed out again.

“Slow breaths,” Percy instructed. “You’re going to make yourself dizzy if you breathe too fast.”

As Nico kept breathing his mind cleared and he became fully aware of his current predicament. Percy was holding him in his arms in a tight, secure embrace, and if Nico tried to struggle out of it he would certainly drop like a stone and drown again. Percy’s chest was pressed against his, expanding and retracting at the same rhythm his did, their legs were tangled, and it was at once awful and amazing. 

“The serpent?” Nico asked, his voice strangled.

“Dead. In great part thanks to you, actually; it got tired quickly as the Stygian iron drained it from its essence.”

“My sword?”

“At the bottom of the lake, but don’t worry. I’ll get you back to the surface and then I’ll go look for it.”

In a few powerful strokes Percy got the both of them back to the surface and then swam to a small stretch of sand bordered by the forest. He dropped Nico there and jumped back into the water. Left alone Nico flopped on his back, feeling dazed and weak as a kitten. The phantom sensation of Percy’s body against him clung to his thoughts and the mere remembrance had his heart beating faster. He was so preoccupied with trying to push back the memory that it took a moment for him to realize that there was someone else with him on the beach.

He sat up so fast that it made lights burst at the edge of his vision field, but that didn’t keep him from seeing the woman about to grab the messenger bag that Percy had dropped with Nico on the sand. She was tall and wiry, dressed all in black, with a leather biker jacket and combat boots. Her long straight black hair framed her narrow pale face and her gleaming eyes. Nico immediately knew who she was: Eris, goddess of strife and chaos, who’d come to get her Apple of Discord back. Nico gritted his teeth and stomped his foot on the ground, using what was left of his strength to crack the earth open and summon skeletons from the Underworld. 

Eris stopped moving, although she didn’t look afraid. “This is mine,” she said. “I would like it back.”

“We’ve spent the past week running after you.”

“You should have taken the hint.”

“Did you put that serpent in the lake? Was it a trap?”

Eris shrugged nonchalantly. From the stories of her getting into a huff at the slightest vexation, Nico hadn’t expected someone so calm and composed. 

“You can have the apple back,” he said. “I just want you to answer a few questions.”

“I don’t think you’re in any position to make demands, demigod,” said Eris, jerking her chin at him, crumpled in a pitiful heap on the sand. She eyed the skeletons that surrounded her disdainfully. “I’m not afraid of those paltry skeletons.”

“Nico!”

Nico heard Percy get out of the water but he didn’t turn around to look at him, keeping his eyes on the goddess. He didn’t want her to run away again, but he wasn’t any more afraid of her than she was of him. His father was a powerful god and their close relationship was no secret. Eris had to know that if she tried to hurt him, all the fury of the Underworld would descend upon her. 

Percy came up to Nico’s side, Riptide in one hand and Nico’s sword in the other. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Nico said, Percy’s sudden proximity making him lose track of his conversation with Eris for a second. “I, uh, I was asking her—Why did you write ‘who killed Adonis?’ on your apple?”

“I knew it would spark an argument between Persephone and Aphrodite.”

“But why did you ask _that_ in particular?” Nico insisted. “I’m sure there were hundreds of other sore spots you could have played with. What made you go with this one?”

Eris looked at him for so long and with such intensity that anyone else would have been forced to look away. Nico’s father had a stare that regularly drove people insane, though, so Nico calmly held her eyes until she said, “Aphrodite put you up to this, didn’t she? I can smell her all over you.”

“It doesn’t matter who sent us,” Percy said irritably. “We’re asking—"

“I know what she’s trying to do with you two, but this is going to have the opposite effect of what she desires. How can you be chained to someone you can’t figure out?”

Nico’s heart dropped down to his stomach, but it was Percy who snapped, “Shut up! Just tell us what you know about Adonis’ death!” Behind them the lake’s water gurgled. 

“Aphrodite can’t handle the truth,” Eris went on, sounding triumphant. As she warmed up to her subject her eyes gleamed so bright it was like a fire had been lit up inside her eyeballs. “She’s always been vain and self-centered, holding herself as the most beautiful and looking down on the rest of us, but she has let the wool be pulled over her eyes and didn’t even realize—”

A crashing sound came from the forest and Nico and Percy’s eyes were drawn to it, in time to see a swan flying out of it and darting across the sky. When they looked back to where Eris had been standing, they found that the goddess was gone and had taken the messenger bag with her. 

“Damn her to Tartarus!” Percy cursed, and when he threw his arms up in the air a huge wave crashed over the shore, dousing Nico a second time. “We’ve wasted a week running after her, and now we don’t even have—”

“Percy, calm—”

“Did you hear her? She _knows_ what happened. She knows and now she’s gone, and we have no way to find—”

“ _Percy!_ ” Nico shouted. His cry made the skeletons he’d summoned raise their weapons, ready for battle.

Percy blinked at Nico for a little too long, as though he’d forgotten he was there. He was breathing hard, his chest heaving with it, and his face was red with anger.

“Uh—” he said, blinking rapidly. “You’re—”

“Wet,” Nico said wryly. “Yes, I’m well aware.”

He was a dripping, soggy mess, while Percy didn’t have a wet hair on him. He was tired, irritable, and faintly concerned at how fast and hard Percy’s anger had exploded. Percy might have a point about the apple; anyway, it didn’t matter now that it was gone. Nico was furious too, of course, but one of them had to remain level-headed.

“Sorry,” Percy said. 

“Are you okay, now? Or are you going to blow up at me again?”

“I _said_ I was sorry!” Percy closed his eyes and took a long shaky breath. “I’m fine, it’s fine. I feel better now.” He opened his eyes and looked Nico up and down. “We should find somewhere to get you dry.”

Nico sent back the skeletons to the Underworld, and after that was way too tired to handle shadow-travel again, so they had to walk for miles before they found a city. By the time they got there it was getting dark and Nico was shivering uncontrollably. 

“We need to find a motel,” Percy said, glancing worriedly at him. “No sleeping outside today.”

Nico made the appropriate sounds of agreement, too tired for conversation. His shoes made squishy noises as he walked and his drying jeans chafed against sensitive bits. All he wanted was a shower and a dry bed, and he didn’t care how he got to them. But the town they’d reached was small, and the first motel they found had no vacancies. One more hour passed before they found another one, but when the lady at the desk told them that they only had one room with a single bed left, Nico was startled out of his stupor.

“What?”

“It’s a queen-sized bed, so there’s enough space for two people to sleep in it,” the clerk said brightly. “Boys your age sleep soundly, anyway. I should know,” she told them in a conspiratorial tone, “because I have three of them at home.”

“Let’s find somewhere else,” Nico said to Percy, ignoring the woman. A ball of panic was growing at the center of his chest and it cleared his mind from the fogginess of exhaustion. “There must be somewhere else.”

“There’s only one other motel in town,” the lady said.

“Then we’ve already been there and they don’t have any vacancies,” Percy said. “Okay, we’ll take it.”

“ _Percy_ ,” Nico said in a furious whisper.

“I promise I don’t hog the cover or anything,” Percy said. “Anna—no one ever had any complaints.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Nico said.

“Then _what_ are you worried about?” Percy asked, a hint of his anger from earlier seeping into his voice. “Because I’m tired, you’re tired and you need a shower, and unless you have another idea that doesn’t involve camping in the woods we’re _taking that room_.”

There was so much Nico wanted to reply to that, but the motel clerk was watching them, her professional smile getting a little congealed, and he couldn’t deny that Percy had a point. Sleeping in a bed sounded heavenly. Besides, Nico was so tired that he would probably fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. 

“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “Whatever.”

They went to their room in frosty silence, but to Percy’s credit he let Nico have the bathroom first. Warm water and cleaning up helped Nico get in a more mellow state of mind. He was at a stage of exhaustion where anything that wasn’t sleep seemed unimportant. He could have slept on the edge of an abyss leading down to Tartarus. What was there to fear from being in the same bed as Percy? He would go to bed, fall asleep, wake up in the morning and ignore any of the parameters involved in those activities. While Percy was in the bathroom Nico got dressed quickly and then slipped into the bed, closing his eyes and willing himself to sleep. 

Surprisingly enough, his plan worked out. When Percy got out of the bathroom and into the bed, Nico didn’t hear him because he was already asleep. 

\---

When a cry woke Nico up in the middle of the night, his reflex was to roll out of bed and grab his sword, ready to fight before he had even shrugged off the last shreds of sleep.

“Percy?”

They hadn’t closed the curtains before going to bed, and the yellowish light from the streetlamps outside of their window was enough for Nico to see that Percy had sat up. His breathing was so ragged that Nico wondered whether he was crying. A cursory look around the room told him that there wasn’t anyone there but them, so he put away his sword and climbed back on the bed. He didn’t get too close, wanting to give Percy his space. 

“Percy?” he repeated, making his voice gentle so he wouldn’t startle him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Percy said thickly. “Sorry about that. You can go back to sleep.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Nico said a little too sharply. He winced, then asked, trying to recapture the gentle tone he’d just used, “What happened? Were you dreaming?”

“Sort of, yeah. I told you I didn’t hog the cover, but I didn’t warn you about the occasional night terror. I hadn’t had them in a while, but I guess meeting Eris must have jerked something loose. So, my bad? Listen, I’ll just go—” Percy cut himself off. “But I can’t go anywhere, can I? You’re stuck with me.”

He said that in the most miserable voice Nico had ever heard, and once again Nico found Percy’s pain short of unbearable. As tense as things had been between them for the past few days, he wasn’t any less smitten and there was no way he could go back to sleep when Percy sounded so upset.

“Well, you’re stuck with _me_ ,” he said wryly, “and I don’t know which one of us got the shorter end of the stick in the bargain.”

Percy huffed a breath. “Don’t say that,” he murmured.

Nico ignored a sudden pang and said, “Did you dream about Tartarus?”

In the dark, Nico saw Percy shrug. He’d circled his knees with his arms and rested his forehead on them. “Probably, but I don’t remember my dreams,” he said, his voice a little muffled. “I just have this feeling when I wake up—” He let out a trembling exhale. “I’ve never felt like this about anything but Tartarus. Do you—do you dream about it sometimes?”

“Yes,” Nico said. “But I can kind of control the dreams. You know, sleep and death—not so far apart.”

Percy made a sound that might have been a chuckle. “Dude, that’s, uh, that’s actually a pretty freaky thought. But it makes sense, I guess. You’re lucky.”

“Lucky me, yes,” Nico said.

“Annabeth has nightmares, too, but when she wakes up she never likes me to touch her,” Percy said, sounding as though he was talking more to himself than to Nico. “I just want to comfort her, but she—I think sometimes she’s scared of me, when she wakes up. Because I was down there with her and I—I got pretty scary, I think.”

“Scary in what way?”

“I almost suffocated Akhlys with poison.”

“That sounds like a normal reaction to Akhlys to me,” Nico said.

Percy made that not-quite-mirthful chuckling sound again. “Yeah, maybe, but it’s just—I was so angry. And it felt good. I knew I had her at my mercy and it felt good.”

His voice was still chock-full of misery, which was ironical considering the topic of their conversation. It was dark, Percy was hiding his face against his knees, and Nico felt stunned from being awakened so abruptly—all of this might explain why he found himself in enough of a sharing mood to say, “When we were traveling with the statue, Reyna, Coach Hedge and me, I turned someone into a ghost.”

That made Percy raise his head. “What? Like, you mean—”

“I mean it literally. He was alive, and then he was a mindless spirit. A shade. His name was Bryce Lawrence.” Just saying that name had Nico’s blood boil with anger again, but he breathed through it. “He’d been banished from the Legion because he’d killed his own centurion. He was going to have Reyna executed, and Coach Hedge tortured—I mean, he was a bad person but that doesn’t make what I did any better. I didn’t know I could do that, but that’s not an excuse either. And I didn’t _almost_ do it. I did do it. Sometimes I wonder at the fact that Reyna is still speaking to me.”

“She must have known you did it to protect her,” Percy said.

“Did I do it to protect her? I don’t know. It’s like you said: I was so angry, and it felt good to have him at my mercy. Except that I didn’t have any mercy.”

“So we’re both scary. I guess that’s why people didn’t want the Big Three to have more kids.”

“Which they pathetically failed at.”

When Percy laughed, it sounded more genuine this time. “I know, right?”

His breathing was getting easier, but he was still huddled over himself and Nico could feel that his tension hadn’t fully dissipated. Remembering the way he’d talked about wanting to comfort Annabeth after a nightmare, it occurred to Nico that physical comfort might be what Percy needed right now. The idea was pretty foreign to Nico; if it were him feeling that poorly, the last thing he’d want would be someone touching him, but different people had different needs. Swallowing hard, he shuffled closer and put a hand on Percy’s shoulder. Percy’s head whipped toward him, and his expression was hard to read but he leaned a little into Nico’s touch. Part of Nico wished he would cling to him the way he had when he was crying about Annabeth.

 _He needs this_ , he told himself. _He’s feeling terrible and I’m the only person around._ At the same time, a self-hating voice at the back of his mind whispered, _yeah, because your motives are so pure when it comes to him._

Most of the time, he could keep his feelings for Percy at bay by being mad at him. Why did Percy have to be so attractive and heroic? Why did he have to be all the things that made Nico so weak for him? But this late at night, when Percy was acting so vulnerable, it was impossible to remain angry. Nico couldn’t do anything but fall a little more desperately in love with him. Biting the inside of his cheek, he started rubbing circles on Percy’s back. Percy was looking at him without saying anything and the lack of lighting made his eyes seem like two bottomless pits. Nico’s heart was beating in his throat. He held his breath, seized by the stupid, superstitious belief that he could stop time that way.

_If this goes on for a minute longer, I’m going to kiss him._

Percy yawned, his jaw creaking, and said, “You must be tired. I think I can go back to sleep.”

Nico retracted his hand hurriedly, burning shame bubbling up his throat. “All right,” he said. “Are you okay, now?”

“Yeah, thank you. Again. At least I didn’t smear snot over your t-shirt this time, right?”

Nico tried to laugh, but it sounded off to his own ears. “Small blessings,” he said.

Percy lied back down and Nico imitated him, feeling like the inches between them were a wall of flames that would consume his hand if he crossed it. 

“Nico?” Percy said quietly.

“Yeah?”

“You’re a good person. That’s why Reyna still speaks to you.”

Percy rolled over to his side, his back on Nico, and pulled the covers over his head. Nico was unable to find sleep for a long time after that, long after Percy’s breathing had slowed and deepened. When he finally fell asleep, he dreamed, and all of his dreams were of a _certain_ nature. He dreamed of being stuck in that bathroom stall with Percy, his hand on Percy’s mouth, the feeling of Percy’s tongue on his palm. He dreamed of Percy’s arms around him when they were in the water, their hips flushed with each other, except that he could feel Percy get hard, was getting hard himself. Percy’s face got closer and closer until his lips were on the sensitive skin of Nico’s neck, on his pulse point, and Nico couldn’t get away because if Percy let go of him he would drown. So he let Percy kiss his neck, let Percy shove a hand down his jeans, touch his dick—

Nico opened his eyes to a room bathed in sunlight. He was simultaneously aware of the fact that he was in a motel bed with Percy and that he was rock hard. He was facing Percy and looked for a moment at the way shadows played on his sleeping face before he rolled over, his heart pounding. He willed his dick to go down, invoking thoughts of skeletons, harpies, Tartarus, being locked in the jar, but it was difficult to calm down while he could smell Percy, hear him breathing softly, feel the warmth of his body. He was about to get out of bed and make a beeline for the bathroom, when he felt the mattress shift and heard Percy say sleepily, “Hmm, Nico, you awake?”

Nico curled up on himself and tried to make it look like he was still asleep. He must not have been convincing, though, because Percy called his name again before leaning over him. 

“Yes,” Nico said shortly, his entire body gone rigid. “I’m awake. But if you need to use the bathroom or whatever, just go ahead. You didn’t have a shower last night, did you?”

Something about Nico’s posture must have tipped Percy off—after all, he also owned a dick— because he leaned back and said, “Oh, right. Don’t worry, dude, I’ll just have my shower now.”

If it had been an option, Nico would have shadow-traveled away as far as he could. Of course, Percy probably thought that Nico just had morning wood, and that he was being weird about it because he was weird about everything. At least, Nico hoped that Percy didn’t have an inkling of what had Nico so embarrassed.

He waited until Percy had disappeared in the bathroom before he unfurled and lied down on his back. He tried once again to make his boner go away, but it was persistent. From inside the bathroom there was a rushing sound as the shower was turned on, and Nico was hit by the vivid image of Percy standing naked in the shower stall, water running down his body. He bit down on his lower lip, his dick throbbing between his legs. Feeling disgusted with himself he let his hand slide down his body, slipping under the covers and inside his underwear. He touched himself and his breath hitched from how good it felt. 

Over the years, he’d developed the art of jerking off without thinking about anything in particular, but the image of a wet and naked Percy wouldn’t leave him, so he let the fantasy unravel. He imagined Percy’s sudsy hands roaming over his arms, his torso, a thumb flicking a nipple, and then handling his private bits—just functional, habitual gestures that came with getting clean, but maybe giving himself a pump while he was at it. Nico shoved a fist in his mouth to muffle any sound he might make and started stroking his dick, rough and quick, so it wouldn’t take long for him to finish. The Percy in his mind rolled his balls between his fingers. Nico bit himself when he came, hard enough that he might have given his hand a bruise, and then just lied down there for a long moment, catching his breath. 

Tears leaked at the corners of his eyes and he wiped at them furiously. Everyone masturbates, he tried to tell himself, and people masturbates to thoughts of other people. In his case, it was another guy, but he was okay with that, wasn’t he? But it wasn’t just that Percy was a guy that made him feel so shameful, so guilty that he wondered if he shouldn’t try turning himself into a shade, if he didn’t deserve it. It was the fact that Percy was _right there_ , innocently taking a shower, unaware that Nico was fantasizing about him. It was Percy being so open and trustful last night, sharing some of his darkest thoughts with Nico, unaware of the fact that he was in bed with someone who wanted to jump his bones. As Eris had said, Percy didn’t know who he was chained with. 

When Percy came out of the bathroom, Nico jumped out of bed and grabbed a change of clothing. He hurried toward the bathroom so Percy wouldn’t notice his red eyes or his stained underwear. He locked himself inside, got out of his night clothes and cleaned himself with toilet paper. He got dressed numbly then leaned over the sink, vaguely worried that he was going to throw up. When Percy knocked on the door, he jumped. 

“Nico?”

“Yeah?” Nico said, keeping a tight control on his voice so it wouldn’t shake.

“You all right in there?”

“Oh, yes, I just—” What did Percy think he was doing in the bathroom? “I just need a moment.”

“Okay, um. Take your time.”

When Nico heard Percy turn on the TV, he slid down against the door until his ass hit the floor. He focused on breathing for a while until the urge to cry had passed. What he needed was to talk to someone who wasn't Percy. The fact that he couldn’t get away from the guy made him feel like he was going to suffocate. Without giving himself the time to change his mind, he got to his feet and made a rainbow over the sink, asking the goddess Iris to connect him to Hazel. He’d called her once after Percy and he had left Camp Half-Blood to tell her what they were doing, and he’d promised to keep her updated. 

“Oh, hi, Nico!” she said brightly. She was in her Roman legionnaire outfit, wearing her chainmail and helmet, and holding her _spatha_ in her hand. “I’m glad you’re calling—Nico, what’s wrong?”

“What? Nothing’s wrong,” Nico said, wondering what he looked like that she could tell with one glance that he wasn’t okay. “I just—you told me to call, so.”

“Yes, of course,” she said, her face still wrinkled in a way that expressed worry. “How’s the investigation going? Everything—okay with Percy?”

“We haven’t progressed much with the investigation.” He explained to her what had happened with Eris. “And everything is fine with Percy. It’s, well, it’s hard to have so little time on my own. It’s getting to me a bit.”

“Yeah, I was afraid it would be hard on you,” she said. 

“But it’s not Percy’s fault.” Nico didn’t want Hazel to keep thinking Percy had done something to him. “We get along well enough.”

“Good, that’s good,” she said. “Is that all? You don’t look so well.”

For a moment, Nico was tempted to tell her everything he’d always kept to himself—about being gay, about being in love with Percy for so long he was afraid it had ruined him for other people. He’d always told himself that he would, one day, when the moment was right. He wanted to have at least one person in his life he’d come out to willingly. Fear had always held him back, though, the fear of what sort prejudices could lurk in Hazel’s mind from the time and place she’d grown up in. He wasn’t scared that she would outright reject him, because she was much too nice for that. But he didn’t want her to love him in spite of him being gay; he wanted her to love and accept him without reservation. He didn’t want to live with the lingering fear that one day she would decide he was too much for her. 

“Nico?” Hazel said. “You’re zoning out on me.”

“Yeah, sorry,” he said. He had to tell her, but he couldn’t do it right now, not when Percy might overhear them. “I’m just a little tired. All that shadow-traveling, you know.”

She didn’t chide him for overdoing it or tell him to be careful. He liked that she trusted him to handle himself. 

“I would have called you even if you hadn’t,” she said, “because I had a few things to tell you in relation to your investigation.”

“What is it?”

“So, according to mythology, the usual suspects for the death of Adonis are Artemis and Ares. You haven’t talked to them yet, have you?”

“No, we haven’t,” Nico admitted. They’d been so focused on catching Eris that they’d let everything else fall by the wayside. What a terrible pair of investigators they made.

“Well, I can help you talk to both of them. First, I asked Frank to talk his father about it, and—” Hazel grimaced. “It took some convincing, but he agrees to meet you in two days, at the Minute Man National Historical Park, next to the Old North Bridge.”

“Mars said that?”

“He’ll come in his Greek aspect, if that matters.”

“Okay,” Nico said, trying not to sound doubtful. Ares had a history with Percy, and him accepting to meet them so they could grill him as a murder suspect sounded too good to be true. “Say thank you to Frank for me.”

Hazel beamed at him; she was always happy to see Frank and Nico get along. “I will. Now to the other thing: Reyna has heard that Artemis and her Hunters are hunting not far from Camp Jupiter, in the Tilden Regional Park. I don’t know how long they’ll be there, so you better come quickly if you don’t want to miss them.”

“We’ll do that. Thank you, Hazel. You’ve been a great help.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“If Percy is all right with it, we’ll probably be there at some point during the day.”

They left each other on a ‘see you later’ promise and Nico disconnected the call. Speaking to Hazel had helped clear his mind, but he still was a little apprehensive about seeing Percy. A small, paranoid part of him that he couldn’t shut up kept trying to convince him that Percy knew what Nico had done while he was in the bathroom.

 _Shut up!_ he told it. _Stop making everything so difficult all the time!_

Taking a breath, he came out of the bathroom. Percy was sitting half-slouched on the bed, watching TV. He looked more relaxed than he had in days, which was nice to see, and he was only wearing a t-shirt and boxer shorts, which was a little _too_ nice to see. Nico had to avert his eyes from his bare tanned legs.

“Were you talking to someone?” Percy asked. 

“Yeah, I called Hazel.”

“Oh, you should have told me, I would have said hello.” Percy must have read something on Nico’s face, because he amended, “But, you know, I can just call her later. We spend enough time together as it is, I don’t have to encroach on your moment with your sister.”

Surprised by Percy’s insightfulness, Nico blinked at him before saying, “You’ll have your wish sooner than you think. It looks like we’re going to Camp Jupiter.”

He shared with Percy the relevant bits of his conversation with his sister. Percy agreed with Nico that they’d have to go meet Ares with their eyes open.

“He seems pretty proud of Frank,” Percy said, scratching his calf with a toe. “But I’ve seen him be a jerk to Clarisse—although maybe he’s more of an ass as Ares. So, I don’t know, we should assume he could have lied to Frank and—”

Percy trailed off. The memory of Hades lying to Nico so he could lock up Percy hung between them like a bad smell. 

“Right,” Nico said, breaking the moment. “We’ll have some breakfast and head for Camp Jupiter. Maybe Reyna will have more details about where we can find the Hunters.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Percy jumped off the bed and rummaged for his clothes. Nico turned around to let him get dressed, knowing that Percy wasn’t the overly modest type and wouldn’t care to go in the bathroom to do it. It didn’t matter that in the process Percy would progressively show less skin rather than more; Nico was still a little turned on from earlier and it felt dangerous to even just watch him get into his clothes. 

“I’m ready,” Percy said. 

He had a small smile on his lips. Nico figured he had noticed him turn around and was amused by what he probably thought was some old-fashioned hang-up from the 1930s, the kind Hazel had in spades. Let him think what he wanted. If Nico had thought to confess, he certainly wouldn’t have done it when Percy literally had no choice but to be stuck with him.

Their hands touching made Nico’s heart stutter in his chest. He ignored it; he was good at avoidance, if nothing else.


	6. Chapter 6

After breakfast, they didn’t waste time before shadow-traveling to Camp Jupiter. Nico insisted that he could do it in one jump, but when they left the shadow right in front of the _principia_ , he staggered and would have fallen on his face if Percy hadn’t caught him. Nico gave him a terse nod that Percy translated as a ‘thank you’, and he took it as his cue to let go. Nico moved a few steps away, as if he wasn’t comfortable without a marked distance between them. After their talk from last night, the renewed coolness stung. Trying to understand Nico sometimes felt like trying to make two jagged puzzle pieces fit together while blindfolded. There was the Nico who’d comforted Percy when he’d cried about Annabeth and who’d soothed his fears about himself by sharing some of his own—the empathetic kid who’d taken the time to chat with Hestia and who’d visited Bob in Hades’ palace. And then there was daytime Nico, who acted like Percy’s mere presence was an imposition on him. 

_How can you be chained to someone you can’t figure out?_ Eris had asked.

This didn’t spark in him the anger that it had when she’d said it, but it still troubled him. Unsurprisingly, Eris had known exactly what button to press—at least now the apple was gone, which was a relief even if it meant that they’d wasted a whole week of their imparted time. Percy contained a sigh and gave his surroundings a look. There were a few campers around and they looked startled by their presence, but Nico’s visits must have been common enough that they got over it quickly. Percy and Nico entered the _principia_ and found both Reyna and Frank inside.

“Thanks for getting us that meeting with you dad, man,” Percy told Frank.

“No problem,” Frank said. “I can’t guarantee he’ll be helpful, though. He had a few… strong words to say about Adonis when I mentioned him. I don’t think he liked the guy very much.”

“Do you think Ares could have killed Adonis?”

Frank made a face, probably worried he would sound disloyal to his father. “He’s, you know. The god of war. Not one for peace and compromise. So I guess it’s possible. But I also think that—if it was him, he would have owned up to it a long time ago.”

“Yeah, I—” Percy said, but was interrupted by Hazel coming in.

She rushed to her brother and hugged him as though she hadn’t seen him in months. She hugged Percy too, but Percy thought it wasn’t as affectionate as usual, even a little distant. Percy’s popularity with children of the Underworld was just abysmal today. 

“How do you know that the Hunters are around?” Nico asked Reyna. 

“Thalia called me. I guess that they were close enough to our camp that she thought—not that she should ask permission, of course, but that it would be a curtesy to warn us. I think she was doing it at her own initiative, not because Artemis had asked her to. Out of respect for me, I assume.”

Nico and Reyna shared a look, probably thinking of their adventures when carrying the _Athena Parthenos_ , of which Percy only knew the barest outline. Nico had said last night that he wondered why Reyna still talked to him, but watching them talk, Percy could read it in Reyna’s expression. Respect. Trust. And from what he knew of Reyna, these weren’t things that she offered lightly. 

“Do you know what they’re hunting?” Percy asked. 

Reyna drummed her fingers against her desk. “From what Thalia told me, they’re hunting an Aeterna.”

“What’s that?”

“They’re monsters that Alexander the Great met during his travels, aren’t they?” Nico said. 

“They’re very rare,” Reyna said, “and have only ever been seen in the northern Indian plains. They would be a great catch for the Hunters.”

“But won’t we get in the way, if we go to Tilden Regional Park to meet them?” Nico asked.

“When I learned that you wanted to talk to Artemis, I tried to call Thalia again,” Reyna said. “But they must be busy with the hunt, because she didn’t answer. So you should definitely be careful when you go there. They will be on the lookout for hikers, though. If you just stay out of their way, it should be okay.”

“Won’t the monster be drawn to them?” Hazel asked. “A child of Hades and a child of Poseidon together is pretty powerful monster bait.”

“Monster bait, right,” Percy said. “If Nico and I ever start a band, that’s what we should call it.”

“I’m sure Percy and Nico can handle it,” Reyna said, giving Percy only the faintest smile for his joke. Tough crowd. “Just don’t stand in the Hunters’ way when they come.”

“Yeah, they’re going to be thrilled to see us,” Percy said. “Us and our boys cooties.” 

“They think you’re okay,” Reyna said. “And Nico is Bianca’s brother.”

She cast Nico a careful look as she said that, meaning that she knew something of the mixed feelings Nico had for the Hunters. Nico’s lips were pressed in a thin line, his jaw contracted, as though he were biting his tongue not to say something.

“If you don’t want to talk to them,” Percy said, “I could—”

“Don’t be stupid, Percy,” Nico snapped. “Or have you forgotten that we can’t be apart?”

“Oh, right.” For a moment, Percy had honestly forgotten about it. Having Nico around all the time had just started to feel natural. “I can still handle all the talking. You don’t have to chat with them if you don’t feel like it.”

His offer only got Nico to glare at him harder. Why did he have to receive every attempt at kindness with hostility? Percy sighed heavily, ruffling his hair with a hand. He was looking forward to seeing Thalia again, to be honest, and Artemis was one of the few gods that he hoped he could get a straight answer from. Compared to the meeting with Ares that awaited them in two days, this was going to be a walk in the park. Which it literally was, in fact. 

“Are you okay to go now?” Percy asked. He didn’t want to treat Nico like a free taxi, knowing how draining his powers were. “Otherwise we can wait a little. I imagine that it’s not so simple to catch an eter-whatever.”

With the mood Nico was in, Percy expected him to bite his head off for suggesting that he couldn’t handle another jump, but he only said, “I don’t think we should wait for too long. They won’t linger after they’ve caught their prey and we don’t want to miss them. We’ve lost enough time hunting down Eris.”

“Okay, it’s up to you,” Percy said. Then, to Reyna, “Can we leave our backpacks here?”

“Of course.”

“Sweet. See you guys later.”

He held out a hand to Nico, who stared at it for some unfathomable reason before taking it gingerly. Immediately, Percy was dragged into the dark rush of the shadow-road. The cold bit him to the bone. His face felt like it was about to peel off. And—

Light exploded in front of his eyes and Percy was yanked out of the shadow, ripped away from Nico and sent flying in the air. He was hurled into what he first thought was a wall, but then he tumbled and rolled, ending up with a mouthful of dead leaves, which was when he realized that it was forest ground. 

“Nic—” He spat dirty bits of leaves. “Nico?” His voice was shaking. His face hurt. He tried to rise on his hands and knees but his head was spinning too much. “Nico, are you all right?”

“Ye-yeah, I’m—”

Something crashed through the bushes and when Percy managed to sit up, he saw a huge shape break through the trees, cracking some of them in two. Percy’s first thought was that it looked like a demented rhino with the bony protuberances sprouting from its head—but he didn’t think rhinos had five of them, or that they looked like jagged blades, or that that their skin had the aspect of a patchwork of bronze plates. Not to mention that none of the rhinoceroses Percy had seen on TV or in zoos had been the size of a truck. Percy had a suspicion that this must be the eternal-something that the Hunters were after.

The not-rhino paused at the edge of the small clearing that Percy and Nico had landed in, as though considering its options. It raked a foot over the ground, leaving a deep groove in it, then snorted loudly before galloping toward a dark heap that Percy only now recognized as a crumpled Nico.

“Nico! Out of the way!”

Nico tried to get up, but his limbs buckled under him. Percy wobbled to his feet and thrust his hands in front of him, calling on his power, desperate for something that would stop the monster from getting to Nico. Water condensed in a cloud that burst right over the not-rhino, which shook its monstrous head irritably. 

“Hey, I’m here!” Percy shouted. “You’re very unfortunate looking, has anyone ever told you that? Now that’s a face only a mother could love.”

The not-rhino had beady yellowish eyes that it turned toward Percy before it charged at him. The ground shook as it ran, faster than it had any right to be given its size. In an instant it was on Percy, who hadn’t even had the time to get Riptide out of his pocket. Percy rolled out of the way when the not-rhino tried to skewer him, then sprang to his feet. He shoved his hand in his pocket, but couldn’t even get his fingers around his pen, too busy dodging the not-rhino wicked-looking tusks. He couldn’t focus enough to summon more water and couldn’t feel any body of water nearby. He could only stumble through a lethal dance with the not-rhino, where the monster tried to run his tusk through Percy and Percy tried not to let it have its way. Unfortunately, Percy appeared to be on the losing side of that particular game. It wasn’t just that the monster was fast, but also that Percy was still shaky from his brutal crash out of shadow-travel. His foot got caught in the loop of a root sticking out of the ground and he tumbled backward, landing on his ass. He rolled over and the not-rhino planted a tusk in the dirt right next to his left shoulder. The bony tooth was sharp and it sliced through the fabric of Percy’s t-shirt, a flash of pain telling Percy that it had gotten to the skin. 

“Gods damn it!” he swore.

It took the monster a few seconds to yank its tusk out of the ground, long enough for Percy to scramble away, but not to give him the time to get back to his feet. He got his hand on Riptide, though, and just had the time to uncap it when the not-rhino waved its head at him. Percy’s sword clashed against the monster’s tusk, the shock vibrating painfully through his sword arm. The monster’s breath was so fetid that a wave of nausea overcame him. 

“Guess—it’s hard—to brush—all those teeth,” he uttered through clenched teeth, his arm shaking so hard against the monster’s strength that it felt like it was going to break.

Something dark flickered at the edge of his vision field, and the not-rhino snarled and threw its head backward, giving Percy the opportunity to crawl out of its way and clamber back to his feet. He caught sight of another shot of darkness flying in front of the monster’s eyes, causing it to gnarl and shake its head. Percy realized that they were bolts of shadows, sent by Nico, who stood about twenty feet away with his hands spread in front of him.

“Thanks, man!” Percy shouted at him. 

Nico’s face was grim—and grimy, dead leaves sticking to his cheek—but he gave Percy a sharp nod of acknowledgment. Then he stomped a foot on the ground and the earth opened right under the belly of the not-rhino, letting out a swarm of armed skeletons. Percy and the skeletons surrounded the not-rhino, slashing and poking at it with their blades. The skin was tough and almost impossible to break, but it turned out to be more fragile at the joints. Percy had just managed to hurt one of the monster’s legs, leaving it furious and bleeding, when an arrow flew past him and lodged itself into the not-rhino’s eye. The monster collapsed with a loud crashing sound, crushing some skeletons in the process. 

Percy turned around, panting, and saw a group of young girls dressed in silver emerge from between the trees. A few of them carried bows. Thalia was in the leading position, identical to the last time Percy had seen her: spiky black hair, bright blue eyes, a silver circlet on her head, looking forever sixteen. It gave Percy a pang to realize that he now looked older than she ever would. 

“Percy?” she said. “Nico? What in Hades are you two doing here?”

“They almost got our kill!” one of the girls, a plump brunet with a face constellated with freckles, complained angrily. 

A few of Nico’s skeletons were still hanging around, awaiting instructions from their summoner. The Hunters eyed them warily, some of them notching arrows to their bows and pointing them at the undead. Others did the same, but aiming at Percy and Nico.

“Stand down,” Thalia told them. “They’re allies.”

“They’re boys,” the freckled girl spat out.

“They’re fine,” Thalia said. “Nico, can you get rid of those skeletons? They give me the creeps.”

Nico did away with the skeletons, but even once they were gone the Hunters only relaxed marginally. Looking at the group, Percy could recognize almost none of them. They all looked young, which of course meant nothing when it came to the Hunters of Artemis, but they also seemed like fresh recruits, showing that extra spark of zeal found in newbies who wanted to prove themselves. 

“We weren’t trying to take your kill,” Percy started. “We—what happened, by the way, Nico?”

“I was aiming for the edge of the park,” Nico said. “Something jerked us out of shadow-travel and flung us here.”

“That light I saw? What could do—”

“Okay, something that can interfere with Nico’s powers definitely sound worrying,” Thalia said, “but Lady Artemis is coming, and—”

“Well, that’s actually why we’re here. We want to talk to Art—Lady Artemis,” Percy said. Hostility was coming at him from the Hunters in waves. He was sore, tired, short on patience, and it was hard to rein in the impulse to snap at them. Nico and he didn’t need another fight right now, though, not to mention that it would lose them their only chance at talking with Artemis. _Be cool, Percy._ “We were actually looking for you guys.”

“How dare you!” cried out a tall, dark-skinned girl with her hair cropped very short. “Why would Lady Artemis waste her time on—”

“Alya, that’s enough,” Thalia said. “What do you want to talk to her about?”

Percy took a calming breath and debated with himself whether it was a good idea to tell the Hunters that they were interrogating their goddess as a suspect in a murder investigation. Nico wasn’t any help, locked in a glaring contest with some of the Hunters. The girls were all young, eager and fanatically devoted to their goddess. None of them except for Thalia had known Bianca, which must be painful for Nico, as if his sister had been replaced and forgotten. This was the ideal combination for sparks to fly.

“It’s kind of a long story,” he said. “Is Lady Artemis nearby?”

“She’s coming,” Thalia said, with a certainty that told Percy she knew through supernatural means. “She knows we’ve made the kill.”

“Okay. Cool.”

Percy sat on a log from one of the trees the not-rhino had broken. He ached all over and there was a bloody spot on his shirt sleeve, but he’d left his backpack at Camp Jupiter and he didn’t dare ask the Hunters for ambrosia—they would probably chew it first and spit it at him. He started whistling idly, which earned him looks from some of the Hunters that promised him not as kind a death as the not-rhino had gotten. This was petty, but it gave him a fair amount of satisfaction.

“How’s Jason?” Thalia asked.

“He’s fine,” Percy said. “He goes to a school in California with Piper, but he spends the summer at Camp Half-Blood.”

“Good,” Thalia murmured. 

“You know,” Nico said. “If you want news of Jason, nothing stops you from getting them yourselves.” Percy could tell that he was exhausted, because there was no restraint in the hurt and anger that seeped into his voice. “But I guess he’s only your brother.”

Frosty silence welcomed his words. A few of the Hunters raised their bows again. Percy bit the inside of his cheek, cursing inwardly. Thalia had become very still, her face a blank mask that Percy knew had to be covering a turmoil of emotions. 

“I’m only going to let that fly because I know where it’s coming from,” she said quietly. 

“Thalia! He insulted you—we can’t let him get away with it!”

“If you want to fight,” Nico began, which made Percy jump to his feet.

“Whoa! Nico, man, let’s not get rash, okay?”

He went to Nico, and it was only when he was very close to him that he realized his friend was shaking. Percy put a hand on Nico’s shoulder and could feel how tense he was. His face was gray and sweaty, and Percy understood that he was on the verge of passing out. Feeling weak in front of people he didn’t like apparently made Nico a belligerent little shit. 

Meanwhile, Thalia was dealing with a mutinous group of Hunters who wanted nothing more than to defend her honor.

“Later, I’ll tell you all about Bianca di Angelo,” she said. The name made Nico flinch. “But Lady Artemis wouldn’t want to find us squabbling like children, so you’re going to behave. Is that understood?”

“We don’t want to fight,” Percy said, as much to Nico as to the Hunters. He didn’t _want_ to fight, because that would be stupid, but adrenaline started coursing through his veins in anticipation of a fight anyway. “We don’t—right, Nico?”

He nudged Nico in the side and Nico said, “Right.”

“Nico is sorry for what he said.” He had to nudge Nico again.

“I’m sorry,” Nico said dully. 

Obviously, the Hunters weren’t appeased by Nico’s half-hearted apology, but they didn’t have the time to reply because Artemis entered the clearing with three other girls in tow. She looked about thirteen, was dressed all in silver and moved with the grace of a ballerina. It looked like bushes, roots and tree stumps just moved out of her way rather than her having to step over them, like the forest itself bowed in respect to the goddess of the wild. When her pale eyes met Percy’s, his breath caught in his throat and his heart skipped a beat. 

“Lady Artemis,” Thalia said. “Percy Jackson and Nico di Angelo want to talk to you.”

Artemis’ eyes flicked at the body of the not-rhino, then back at Percy. “Does it have something to do with that matter at the feast with Aphrodite and Persephone?” she asked.

“Uh, yes.”

Artemis turned to her Hunters. “Take care of the Aeterna’s body,” she said. “I’ll have a word in private with our young heroes.”

From the dirty looks that the Hunters cast them, they didn’t enjoy being kept out of the loop, but none of them dared contest their goddess’ orders. They got to work swiftly, each of them taking over a part of the monster’s huge corpse with barely any out loud communication between them. 

Artemis beckoned to Percy and Nico and they followed her behind a veil of trees. Percy would have worried about one of the Hunters sneaking behind a bush to listen in, except that he knew they were too loyal to go against their goddess’ explicit instruction. Nico leaned against a tree in a way that would have looked casual to an observer. Percy sidled up to his side, trying not to make it too obvious that he was there in case Nico keeled over. 

“Tell me,” Artemis said simply, and Percy told her the story of how Aphrodite had roped them into the investigation of Adonis’ murder.

“And, well, we—” he said. Artemis’ steady silver stare made him stumble over his words. He didn’t think that Artemis was as touchy as her Hunters, and back in the days of the Titan War Percy and she had kind of shared a moment when she’d handed over the weight of the sky to him. Still, she was a goddess, and gods took offense at the drop of a hat. “A lot of myths say that you’re the one who sent that wild boar, to avenge the death of your follower Hippolytus.”

“Aphrodite was always a jealous creature,” Artemis said sharply. “She had Hippolytus killed because he would not worship her like all the mindless mortal men.”

“Soooo,” Percy said. “Is that a confession? Did you kill Adonis?”

Artemis’ silver eyes flashed and Percy swallowed hard. “I did not,” she said evenly.

“Do you know who did it, then?”

“I do not.”

“Before Adonis died, he didn’t spend his free third of the year with Aphrodite. He might have been on his own or with someone else. We don’t know,” Nico said. His voice was a little hoarse, but the expression on his face was of intense focus. “Do you know what he did or who he was with? Or why he chose differently from usual?”

Artemis shrugged, a strangely human gesture that she must have picked up from some of her Hunters. “I do not get myself involved in Aphrodite’s business. I cared nothing for Adonis.”

“Something happened that made Adonis change his mind about spending that time with Aphrodite,” Nico insisted, leaning forward intently as he spoke. “Do you know if someone ever told him about what Aphrodite had done to his parents? Eris seems to know something, but we couldn’t get it out of her.”

It was only because Percy was looking at Artemis when it happened that he caught the recognition that flashed across her face, as if she’d just thought of something. It lasted only a split second before she schooled her features into blankness.

“Eris picks up on secrets,” she said slowly, as though she had to weigh each word. “And then she uses them as seeds to sow chaos.”

“What’s the secret?” Nico asked. “What did Eris find out?”

Artemis’s eyes were lost to some silent contemplation for a moment, then she said solemnly, “I did not send the wild boar that killed Adonis. I do not know who killed him. I swear it on the River Styx.”

Her tone left no doubt that she thought the conversation to be over. She walked past Percy and Nico, going back to her Hunters. The body of the monster had lost its hide and three of its tusks in the few minutes that Artemis’ conversation with Percy and Nico had lasted. Percy had to hand it to the Hunters—they had crazy efficient teamwork. 

“She knows something,” Percy said in a low voice to Nico. “Did you see her face? Maybe she didn’t realize it before, but she sure knows something now.”

“Yeah,” said Nico before he listed to the side like a sinking boat.

Percy caught him before he touched the ground. Nico hadn’t fainted, exactly, because Percy could see his eyelids flutter as he clung to consciousness, but his legs weren’t holding him up and he leaned against Percy’s side a lot more heavily than Percy knew he would if he had full control of his body. His skin was icy cold, and even though he was always cold that caused a flicker of alarm to spark in Percy’s brain. Then he looked down at Nico’s hands and the blood froze in his veins when he realized that he could see the black of Nico’s jeans through them. 

“Um, help?” Percy called out, voice catching in his throat. “Hey, can I have some ambrosia here? Something’s wrong with Nico!”

For a moment, he thought that none of them would bother to come and white-hot anger burst in his chest. _Fuck them to the deepest part of Tartarus_ , he thought viciously, which was when Thalia popped in his vision field. She looked guarded at first, then worried when she saw the state Nico was in. 

“What’s wrong with him?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Percy said. His hand had curled into a tight fist from anger and he forced his fingers to unfurl. “Maybe we shouldn’t have made that second shadow-travel jump… Or maybe it was that strange light we saw. Maybe it affected him more than just throwing us out of shadow-travel.”

“Has this—” Thalia waved at Nico’s hands. “—happened before?”

“Only when he exhausted himself carrying the _Athena Parthenos_ across the world,” Percy said, his throat feeling tight.

“What—” Nico mumbled. “Whaz goin’n?”

He lifted trembling, shadowy hands to his face and made a whimpering sound. “Oh, gods. Oh, no. Not again. I can’t—”

“It’s all right,” Percy said, tightening his hold on him. The breaths were coming out of Nico in short, rapid pants. “You’re going to be okay. Thalia, do you have any ambrosia on you?”

Thalia handed him a tiny square of it, which Percy fed to Nico hand to mouth in case Nico couldn’t hold it with his disappearing hands. _That_ was a supremely freaky sight, and Percy’s brain kept shirking away from it, refusing to accept it as something that was happening. Nico chewed slowly on the ambrosia and after a minute he was alert enough that he could keep his eyes open and realize that Percy was holding him.

“I’m fine,” he said, squirming weakly in Percy’s grasp. “You can let go of me.”

“Show me your hands.”

Nico’s hands were solid again and Percy let out a sigh of relief. Nico still looked queasy and he examined his fingers with care for a very long time, seemingly looking for hidden signs of shadowiness.

“Thanks, Thalia,” Percy said as he propped up Nico against a tree.

Nico let his hands drop in his lap and he looked up at Thalia. “Yeah, thank you,” he said. “And, hmm, sorry again. About what I said.”

“Jason and I aren’t you and Bianca,” Thalia said. 

“I know. But, can I ask you something?”

Thalia tilted her head, giving Nico a wary look. “Sure,” she said at last. “Can’t promise that I’ll answer, though.”

“Fair enough. If you’d known that Jason was alive, would you still have chosen the Hunters?”

Thalia thought it over for a moment. “It’s hard to say. It would have certainly made the decision more difficult. But being with the Hunters has given me a purpose that I lacked before. I can’t imagine my life now without it.”

Nico bowed his head, hiding his reaction to what Thalia had said. “Okay. Thank you for answering.”

Percy wanted to reach out to him but knew that it wouldn’t be well-received, so he stuck his hands in his pockets, his heart feeling like a block of stone in his chest.

“Bianca loved you,” he said. “She told me that.”

“I know. I also know that I was a burden to her.” Nico started to get up, one hand on the tree trunk to keep his balance. “We’ll have to walk out of here. I can’t shadow-travel right now. Thalia, can you point us to the right direction? We’re going back to Camp Jupiter.”

“Before you leave, Percy, would like some ambrosia too?” Thalia asked, pointing at Percy’s bloody shirt sleeve.

Percy took the offered ambrosia, which did wonders for the various aches in his body. Thalia gave them the direction she thought would be best to leave the park and they started walking that way. Walking by, they saw that the Hunters had reduced their prey to a pile of bones. It made Percy glad that they’d managed to avoid a fight with them. He could only imagine them swooping on him like a swarm of murderous bees. 

It took them two hours to reach the limit of the park, and on the way they had more than enough time to discuss the recent developments on their murder case. 

“Artemis has obviously understood something as we talked, but what’s interesting to me is the way she worded her pledge on the River Styx,” Nico said. “She said that she didn’t send that boar, so that clears her right out. But she also said that she doesn’t know who killed Adonis.”

“So she isn’t sure of what happened,” Percy said, picking up on Nico’s reasoning. “The pledge is that she doesn’t _know_. But suspecting something isn’t knowing.”

“I don’t think Aphrodite is the culprit anymore,” Nico said. “At least if Artemis is right in what she thinks she knows. Artemis has no reason to want to protect Aphrodite.”

“Quite the contrary, even. But what tipped her off in what we said?”

“An easier question would be: who would she protect? Why not tell us the truth?” Nico stumbled on a tree root but caught his balance before Percy could shoot out a hand to help him. “Artemis tends to keep away from other gods.”

“Yeah, it would be easier to get us out of her hair by telling us what she suspects. But with that promise, she tried to give us the impression that she knew nothing.”

“So she’s protecting someone. And there’s only one person among the gods who that might be.”

“Her brother.” Percy hit the palm of his hand with a fist. “Of course! The _swan_. When we were talking with Eris, it was a swan that distracted us, letting her get away. Swans are Apollo’s sacred animals.”

“Yeah,” Nico said darkly, staring right ahead. “Seems like even Artemis can’t help some family feeling toward her brother.”

“Nico, man…”

“It’s fine.”

“Oh, if you say it’s fine, then why would I even doubt it?” Percy said. He’d laid it on a little thick with the sarcasm and wasn’t surprised when that earned him a scowl from Nico. “But, dude, you know, you’ve listened to me whine about my crap on more than one occasion. Anytime you feel like it, you can do the same to me.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Nico murmured. He tripped on another root, but this time Percy caught him by the shoulder.

“If you need a break—”

Nico shrugged him off. “I don’t need a _break_. Lay off me.”

Percy shoved his hands in his pockets, this time so he wouldn’t be tempted to strangle Nico for being so stubborn. Once they left the park, they had to take a series of buses to get to where the entrance to Camp Jupiter was. The conversation had died after their irritated exchange about Nico needing a break, but after a while the silence had become comfortable, or maybe it was just that they were both too tired for anger.

“So what was Apollo’s grudge against Aphrodite again?” Percy asked as they got on the second bus.

They went to sit at the far back of the bus, and the only person close to them was a black guy who slept with his cap drawn over his face.

“Apollo’s son, Erymanthus, spied on Aphrodite and Adonis having sex,” Nico said.

“Oh, that’s right. I imagine that Aphrodite didn’t let him get away with it.”

“She blinded him. Some versions of Adonis’ death say that Apollo changed himself into the boar that killed Adonis.”

“Sucks for Adonis,” Percy said. “Wasn’t his fault, really.”

“This has never mattered to the gods.”

Percy leaned his head against the window behind him, closing his eyes for a moment. The bus drive was lulling him to sleep, but he was afraid that they’d miss their stop if Nico fell asleep too so he shook himself. When he opened his eyes, he saw Nico watching him.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Nico answered predictably, looking away.

“I wonder what sex with a goddess looks like,” Percy said before his brain could veto it.

“What?”

“No, I was just thinking—Erymanthus must have known that Aphrodite would be mightily pissed off if she caught him, right? So, I don’t know, he must have been so caught up in it that—” Nico was giving him a look that meant ‘ _you’re a weirdo_ ’ and Percy trailed off. “Yeah, it was just a stupid thought.”

“I don’t have any experience with normal sex,” Nico said. “I wouldn’t have anything to compare it to.”

“Oh.”

Percy would have assumed that Nico was a virgin, if he’d ever thought about it at all, but it surprised him to hear Nico admit it. Percy tried to school his features into polite disinterest—even just a whiff of sympathy would have Nico ready to bite his head off. It wasn’t like Percy himself was such a Casanova, anyway. At nineteen, he’d only ever had one girlfriend and he’d made a mess of that relationship. Thinking about that in combination with Nico brought another matter to his mind. 

“You know,” Percy said, looking out the window at the busy sidewalks, “if you wanted to… I mean, if you were thinking of asking Annabeth out, don’t mind me. It’s not like you need my permission or anything—either of you—but if you were worried about hurting my feelings—”

“What’re you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Annabeth. And you.”

“Yeah, I got that part. But why would you think I’d want to ask Annabeth out?”

Percy forced himself to turn his head and look at Nico, who was watching him with a bemused expression on his face.

“Well, you have a crush on Annabeth, don’t you?” Percy said, even though he was much less certain all of a sudden.

“Me? A crush on _Annabeth_?”

Nico sounded so incredulous that Percy’s pride was pricked on Annabeth’s behalf. “Hey, you don’t have to say it like this. I’m sure a lot of people have a crush on her. She’s super smart, and pretty, and—”

“I don’t need a list of Annabeth’s qualities, thank you,” Nico said sharply. “I have nothing against her. She’s—she’s fine. She’s great. It’s just ridiculous to think of me having a crush on her because—”

“Because what? I’m sure you two would be great together,” Percy said in what he thought was a pretty convincing tone. He was starting to wonder if Nico didn’t feel like he was out of Annabeth’s league, which was just stupid.

“Yeah, maybe, I don’t know. It’s not that, it’s just—” Nico closed his eyes and let out a breath through his nose. “It’s just that I don’t like girls,” he said in a lower voice. 

It was Percy’s turn to feel like the conversation had slipped out of his grasp. “What?” 

“I mean that—” Nico cast a nervous look around him, as though trying to see if anyone was listening to them. “I’m _gay_ , Percy.”

“You’re—” It took a couple of seconds for the words to sink in. “Oh. Okay.”

A few emotions flicked through his brain, mostly surprise, and then awe that Nico had trusted him enough to tell him. Nico’s face was bright red and he was looking at anything but Percy. 

“‘Okay’?” he repeated, playing nervously with his skull ring. “You’re the first person I ever tell this willingly and that’s all you have to say?”

“Well, I’m sorry if I don’t have a speech ready for when my friends come out to me! It’s just that, I don’t really care—I mean, I’m glad you told me, but it doesn’t change anything for me. You know that, right?”

Now that he was thinking about it, it did add another layer of explanation as to why Nico had never felt comfortable at camp, why he kept pushing people away. Being born decades ago, it must have been difficult to even admit it to himself. It would have been tough to go through that realization alone. Percy was seized by the urge to do something stupid like give Nico’s shoulder a comforting pat, but he liked his hand attached to his wrist so he kept it to himself.

Nico tore his eyes away from his own hands to look at him. “Percy,” he said, “I—”

“Wait, did you say that I’m the first person you told ‘willingly’? Hazel knows about it, right?”

“No,” Nico said shortly, looking away again. “Jason and Reyna know, but yeah, there were circumstances. I didn’t mean to tell either of them. And my dad knows too, I think, but that’s because he figured it out himself.”

“And he doesn’t mind?”

“I don’t think this kind of thing matters as much to the gods as they do to us.”

“Probably not.” Percy hesitated before saying the next bit, “Not that it’s any of my business, but I’m sure Hazel wouldn’t mind if she knew. She loves you.”

“I know,” Nico said, in the exact same tone he’d said that he knew that Bianca loved him. “I don’t really want to talk about it anymore, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure.”

They didn’t talk about much of anything else after that revelation. Percy tried to act as if this had just been your everyday chit-chat, but he was exhausted and he’d never been a good actor, so it was probably best that they didn’t speak. The last thing Percy wanted was to screw up everything between them when Nico had finally opened up a little. 

They reached Camp Jupiter as night was falling and were received with worried exclamations from Hazel and Frank. Even Reyna looked a little concerned when she saw how exhausted and beaten up they looked, which was probably what earned them the guest room next to the praetors’ private quarters. Percy had expected to sleep in one of the barracks, so this was welcome news. What was even more welcome was that the room had twin beds and a private bathroom. Nico crashed immediately on the bed furthest from the door, but although it was tempting to do the same, Percy headed for the bathroom first. He badly needed to wash up, for one, and water always gave him a boost. The other reason why he was grateful for the guest room’s bathroom was that he really wanted a little privacy. Roman baths were fun, but they were public. 

He undressed, throwing his dirty clothes on the bathroom floor, and stepped into the shower. He let the hot water run over his face for a moment, feeling reenergized by the second, then soaped his hands and proceeded to wash himself. When he was done, he turned off the water and hesitated. Would Nico hear that the water had stopped running and wonder why he wasn’t coming out? Percy could have let it run, but he hated wasting water. Well, chances were that Nico was sound asleep right now; he certainly was worn out enough for it. And if he happened to be awake and guessed what Percy was doing, then it didn’t have to be a big deal. Being gay didn’t make Nico any less of a guy, and Percy was pretty sure he’d been beating off this morning while Percy was in the shower.

Decision made, Percy took his dick in his hand and gave it a few strokes to get it started. Since his break up with Annabeth he hadn’t masturbated much, because masturbating made him think of people he found hot, which made him think of Annabeth, which tended to nip any desire to get off in the bud. Tonight, though, he felt vaguely horny in a persistent way that he knew would disturb his sleep. It might have been because of all that talk of gods having sex, or because of the fight with the not-rhino; years of fighting had crossed his wires and his body sometimes mixed up battle arousal with sexual arousal. Whatever it was, Percy wasn’t about to pass an occasion to let off some steam. Maybe he’d feel less on edge after rubbing one out. 

He debated for a moment about what he should get off to. Anything involving Annabeth was out of the question. Aphrodite and Adonis having sex, hmm. Now was something that safely belonged to the realm of fantasy. Percy tried to picture the scene as Erymanthus would have witnessed it. Where would it take place? Surely the goddess of love and her extraordinarily beautiful lover didn’t have sex in something as mundane as a bedroom. It probably happened in some bucolic nature spot, with water nearby. Next to a pond? No, pond water was murky. The water of a stream would be crystal clear and glimmer under the sun, which would improve the scene nicely. A waterfall in the background would be a good touch too, bringing with it the rushing sound of falling water. 

And what should Aphrodite and Adonis look like? Aphrodite’s appearance was changing, and Percy had never seen any art representing Adonis, so that left it to his imagination. Percy’s dick was getting thicker in his hand, not fully hard yet, but definitely interested in the process. He closed his eyes and pictured Aphrodite as he’d last seen her, straddling a dark-haired guy that was lying down in the grass next to a stream. Percy thrust in his hand as he imagined the scene, the noises they would make, their hands roaming over each other’s bodies. As he got more into the fantasy the couple’s appearances started to shift. Aphrodite started to look more like Artemis—which made Percy hope fervently that the goddess couldn’t see inside his mind and take offense. Dark-haired Adonis’ looks started to settle and become less generic: his hair was shaggy, his face sharp, his body wiry but muscular. With a jolt, Percy realized he kind of looked like an older Nico. 

_Wow. I’ve really been spending too much time with the guy._

As awkward as it was, Percy was much too far gone to stop now. With one hand on the shower tiled wall to prop himself, he pumped his dick with increasing speed, chewing on his lower lip. In his mind the couple was grinding against each other, their mouths meeting for sloppy kisses. Fantasy Adonis grabbed the goddess’ hips and pushed her down on her back, rising on his knees so he could fuck her deep and hard. His shapely ass contracted with every thrust, the muscles in his thighs bulging. His hips jerked as he came with a low, throaty grunt while Aphrodite’s fingers clawed at his back. Percy’s orgasm hit him suddenly; he gasped loudly, spurting come on the wall. His legs wobbled under him and he had to catch himself on the shower handle.

“Okay,” he murmured to himself. “Guess I needed that, huh.”

He washed the evidence of what he’d done and got out of the shower. In the bedroom, Nico was still lying face down on his bed, breathing softly. Percy threw a blanket over his sleeping body and stared at him for a moment. He wondered what Nico had thought about when he’d jerked off this morning. Was there a guy he liked? What was his favorite fantasy? Would he prefer to get fucked or to fuck someone?

_Where in Hades did that come from? What’s wrong with me?_

Percy shook his head, rubbing his burning face, and told himself to stop being a creepy voyeur. He clambered onto his own bed and slipped inside. He fell asleep fast and hard, and didn’t wake up until morning.


	7. Chapter 7

The meeting with Ares being planned for the next day, Nico and Percy had one spare day on their hands, which they used to get some rest. Well, Nico was the one who spent most of the day resting. The interrupted shadow-traveling had hit him hard, and he kept surreptitiously looking at his fingers, expecting them to turn vaporous at any moment. The more he thought about it, the more he suspected that Apollo had been the one to do it, using the power of sunlight to disrupt the shadow—and throwing them in the path of the Aeterna by the same occasion, which could have gotten them killed. Apollo being the one they were looking for kept making more and more sense. It annoyed Nico that they had to waste a day on that meeting with Ares, but they couldn’t cancel on him without risking the god’s wrath, not only on them but also on Frank. Who knew, maybe Ares would know something that could incriminate Apollo.

If Nico was resting, Percy was for his part incapable of sitting still. His movements were restricted by his bond with Nico, so Nico spent the day trailing after him while Percy played cards with the Fifth Cohort, took part to the marching drills, and was now involved in an impromptu sword fighting session with a few campers, where he compared Greek and Roman techniques on the Field of Mars. Nico sat on the ground cross-legged, watching the dueling. Even though he would have liked to take a nap, it was no hardship to be watching Percy sword fight. Because he was good at it, for one, and Nico was proficient enough with a sword to be able to admire his skill. And, of course, because Percy in a duel always looked at his best: happy, doing something he loved, but also graceful and lethal at the same time, using his body as a weapon the same way he used his sword. Because of the bond Nico had an excuse to be there, and no one was paying him any mind. He could observe to his heart’s content and not be too worried about hiding his reactions.

The conversation where he’d come out to Percy the day before felt like a fever dream now. Percy hadn’t alluded to it or treated Nico any different, so it was easy to think it had never happened at all. Nico wasn’t quite at that level of self-delusion, though. He couldn’t explain what had possessed him to do it; there would have been other ways to explain why he didn’t have a crush on Annabeth, but for once he hadn’t wanted to lie. And it had gone well enough—Nico had always been afraid that if Percy knew he was gay, he would guess that Nico was in love with him, but it looked like the thought hadn’t occurred to Percy at all. Maybe it was because he didn’t have an ounce of vanity about the way he looked, so he didn’t tend to assume that people were attracted to him. Nico thought it unfair how much more attractive it made Percy to his own eyes. 

“Do you mind if I sit here?”

Nico looked up at Reyna, who wasn’t wearing her purple praetor cape, but just the basic Camp Jupiter outfit.

“Of course,” he said.

She sat down, her legs extended in front of her, crossed at the ankles. She looked at the dueling campers for a moment, with a serious frown on her face that told Nico she was being critical of their technique. 

“How are you doing?” she asked. 

“I’m fine,” Nico said. “I can’t see through my hands, which is always a checkmark in the plus column.”

She didn’t smile at his joke. She’d been there with him the first time it had happened, forced to watch him slowly kill himself for the sake of their mission. It probably wasn’t very funny to her. 

“What about your investigation?” she asked.

Nico summed up his and Percy’s conclusions about Apollo’s probable guilt. “We don’t have any proof for now. But we still have over a week left, so we’re not desperate yet.”

“This is good work,” Reyna said, giving him a nod of approval. “You two have worked well together.”

“You don’t have to sound so surprised,” Nico said.

She looked away from the campers that were being taken down one by one by Percy to be able to look him directly in the eye. “I’m not surprised. You complement each other well, when other matters don’t get in the way.”

“Yeah,” Nico said. “Other matters, right.”

“Everything okay on that front?”

Nico examined his fingers, long and pale and, for now, reassuringly solid. “I came out to him yesterday. He thought I had a crush on Annabeth, which is kind of hysterical.”

“How did he take it?”

“Fine. He said it didn’t matter to him. I didn’t tell him about the other stuff, though.”

“The other stuff being—”

Nico clenched his jaw. “That I’m in love with him.”

“I thought that you were over him?”

This was Reyna’s version of making fun of him and Nico glared at her for it. “Well, turns out I’m not. It’s actually worse than ever.”

“You make it sound like a disease.”

“It feels like it, sometimes.”

Whooping cries came from the group of campers attending the sword fighting session, and Nico’s attention was drawn that way like a moth to a flame. “Percy! Percy! Percy!” the campers were chanting, clapping their hands. Percy swept into his opponent’s space, grappling his sword arm and making him drop it. He was breathing hard, sweat running down the side of his face. He flicked hair out of his eyes with a jerk of the head, then rolled a shoulder. He adjusted his grip on Riptide and it made the muscles in his forearm flex. “Who’s next?” he called out, grinning widely. The longer Nico watched him, the hotter his face grew; the fact that he knew that Reyna could see it only made it worse.

“Jonathan made a lot of amateur mistakes,” Reyna said, clucking her tongue in disapproval. Nico assumed that Jonathan was the guy who’d just lost against Percy.

“Percy is very good with a sword,” Nico said, then cringed, hating how enamored he’d sounded.

Reyna shot him a sharp, knowing glance. “Are you going to tell him how you feel at some point?” she asked.

“One day, maybe. Not now, though. It’s one thing for him to know that I like guys; it’s another thing entirely to know that I want _him_. How awkward would it be for him if I told him now, when he’s unable to get away from me?”

“Will you tell Hazel?”

Hazel and Frank were in the crowd encouraging Percy. As if she’d somehow felt that she’d been mentioned, Hazel turned around and gave Nico a little wave. He waved back, feeling shame tighten his throat. He’d thought so many times about her being the first person he would come out to on his own accord. He felt like he’d betrayed her in a way that she didn’t even suspect. 

“I will,” he said. “Of course I will.”

Reyna shook her head. “It seems weird that it was easier for you to tell Percy than your own sister.”

Nico shrugged. “It just happened like that.”

But the truth was, in a way it _was_ easier to tell Percy than Hazel. Nico wasn’t under any illusion about the future of his relationship with Percy. At best, they would remain friends, if Nico could manage it. With Hazel, though, he had something to lose. Something he’d lost before, and he wasn’t sure he was strong enough to go through it again. 

“If you need backup for your meeting with Ares,” Reyna said, blessedly changing the subject, “I can spare a few legionnaires.”

“Thanks, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. We don’t want Ares to take it the wrong way. I wouldn’t want to get Frank in trouble with his dad.”

“All right.” Reyna got up in one swift motion. “Duty calls, but you know where to find me if you need anything.”

Nico smiled at her. “Thanks, Reyna.”

The next day, as they were getting ready to go meet with Ares, Percy fussed over Nico for what Nico thought was an exaggerated amount of time, asking him again and again if he was sure he could handle the jump. It was both insulting and sweet in a way that Nico didn’t want to examine too closely. He tried to be patient at first, because it was understandable that Percy had been freaked out by the whole ‘turning into a shadow’ incident, but his reserve of patience was limited and he found himself soon out of it.

“What else do you want us to do?” he asked, exasperated. Then, viciously, “Should we take a plane?”

Percy grimaced. Even though it was unlikely that Zeus would try to smite him now that he was the hero of multiple wars, Nico knew that Percy’s fear of planes was deeply rooted.

“Maybe we could ask Reyna for a pegasus or two?” he suggested, but Nico shook his head vigorously. 

“No, absolutely not. We’re shadow-traveling, and that’s final.”

The jump went fine—which probably meant that Apollo wasn’t worried about them talking to Ares—but Nico still gave his hands a quick glance afterward. It couldn’t hurt to check.

The Minute Man National Park was over 1000 acres and included a number of sites commemorating the opening battle of the American Revolutionary War. With so many people visiting it daily to remember the war, it was no surprise that Ares had chosen the park as the place for their meeting. The war-like spirit of the place would give him an edge. 

The time of the meeting had been pretty vague; the only thing they knew was that it should happen at the end of the day, probably when there would be the less visitors. The parking lot gates would close at sunset, but that didn’t matter to Nico and Percy. They’d agreed to get there at the beginning of the afternoon so they wouldn’t give Ares a chance to pretend that he’d come but hadn’t seen them, and they spent most of it hanging around the North Bridge. It was a wooden pedestrian bridge, a replica of the one that had been there in 1775 during the battle between the Minutemen and the British. The day was beautiful, the sun making the water of the Concord river sparkle as if it carried diamonds, with a nice breeze rustling through the trees. Nico and Percy had all the leisure to examine the various memorials and statues that commemorated the war around the bridge—the memorial obelisk of 1836, the Minute Man statue, the British soldiers grave. They sat on the bank of the river to wait, idly chatting about unimportant things, like recent Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter gossip, the last movie they’d watched, whether they thought Hercules or Perseus would win in a fight. Nico’s brain, which hated him, kept pointing out to him how much this looked like a date.

_Yeah, because all dates involve carrying weapons on you and a subsequent meeting with the god of war._

“Don’t you think it’s weird that Ares had us meeting here?” Nico said, trying to distract himself from the line of Percy’s neck as he threw his head back to expose his face to the sun. 

“Why’s that?” Percy asked absentmindedly. 

His sneakers were barely an inch from the water, and Nico could tell that he yearned to take off his shoes and dip his feet in it, but didn’t want to be caught shoeless in case Ares showed up. Behind them, children were chasing each other on the grass, squealing with delight.

“The river,” Nico said, waving at the water. “You’re going to be more powerful with it here. It would have been easy for him to ask us to meet in a place you would be cut off from water.”

“I’m never really cut off from water,” Percy said, but he was frowning, so Nico’s point must have reached home. “Maybe this is a show of good faith? Putting us more or less on an equal footing. The fact that it’s the site of a battle is in his favor, the presence of the river is in mine, and, well—People died here, so that’s a point for you.”

“He’s a god. We’re never going to be on an equal footing.”

“We’re supposed to only talk to him.”

“You don’t really believe that, do you?”

Percy sighed. “No, I don’t. So I guess he’s trying to lull us into a false sense of safety, isn’t he?”

“That’s my assumption. If only we knew when he’ll show up.”

The rest of the afternoon went on at a slow pace. The rising anticipation of meeting with Ares was making it increasingly harder to enjoy the weather and the pleasant setting. Nico could see Percy sliding his hand into his pocket every so often, probably touching Riptide in its pen form to make himself feel better. Eventually, the sun started to go down and the temperature to cool, and visitors deserted the place until Nico and Percy were the only one left there.

“Anytime now,” Percy murmured.

“Good, you’re here,” said a voice.

Nico and Percy both sprang to their feet and whirled around. Ares had come from the copse of trees that edged the grass on the eastern bank. He looked like a thug from a biker gang, wearing sunglasses even though the sun was now hiding behind the trees. He was handsome, but in a cruel way that made him unattractive to Nico.

“Hello,” Nico said, his hand curling around his sword’s handle.

This made Ares snicker. “You’re the son of that old bore of Hades,” he said. “I saw you fight in the battle against the Titans. Not too shabby, for a wannabe necromancer.”

“Stop joking around,” Percy said hotly, as though offended on Nico’s behalf. “We wanted to meet with you to—" 

Ares cut him off. “Oh, I know all about it. Aphrodite told me to expect the two of you. Percy Jackson and his little buddy.” Ares snickered again, and Nico wondered what exactly Aphrodite had told him about them. “All this business about Adonis is a pain. I thought we’d got rid of him thousands of years ago.”

“Did you kill him?” Percy asked sharply. 

Ares’ smile looked like a knife wound slashed across his face. “I agreed to talk to you, but I never said it would be that easy. If you want me to answer your questions, then you need to win this fight first.”

“What fight?” Nico said, but his question was answered immediately when he caught sight of the silhouettes that now surrounded them.

They were dead soldiers, probably from the Revolutionary War—some of them wore the tattered red coats of British soldiers. There was a dozen of them and they launched themselves at Nico and Percy without waiting for a spoken command from Ares. Percy already had his sword out and it clanked against one of the soldiers’ bayonets. Nico didn’t even have to unsheathe his own sword; he called onto his powers to split the earth open and the dead soldiers that Percy hadn’t already disposed of were swallowed up into the cracks. 

“Well,” Percy said, lowering Riptide. “That was anticlimactic.”

Instead of relaxing, Nico only tensed further. Why would Ares send skeletons at a son of Hades? He should have known that Nico could get rid of them in a heartbeat. 

“No,” he said, “that was way too ea—”

The ground shook so hard that they both fell face first in the grass. A roar made the air around them vibrate. Percy was up on his hands and knees first, and he twisted around to look behind him.

“Aww, man. Are you freaking kidding me? Do you want to kill us?” he yelled. 

Nico looked too and his heart stopped when he saw the drakon that emerged from the river. As far as drakons went, it was on the smaller side, only fifty feet tall. Its color was a bright red, the color of arterial blood, and its snout was as long as a crocodile’s. It had very small legs, at least two of them that Nico could see, but it crawled on its belly over the grass, aiming at them.

Ares was laughing maniacally. “Why, Percy, this should be child play for a son of Poseidon and a son of Hades working together! Don’t disappoint me, boys. I want a good show!”

Percy got on his feet and then hauled Nico up. “We aim for the eyes,” he said. “Be careful, it might spit something—” The drakon opened its maw and exhaled a cloud of greenish smoke. “Don’t breathe it!” Percy exclaimed, pulling at the collar of his t-shirt so it would cover his nose and mouth. 

Nico did the same, but he couldn’t help breathing a whiff of a noxious smell that made him dizzy. The drakon’s breath must be poisonous. Nico’s mind did a quick overview of the situation: the poisonous breath and the fact that they had to be careful not to get too far away from each other were a hindrance to Nico and Percy, but the river next to them and the dead soldiers that Nico could bring back in an instant were an advantage. _This a game_ , Nico understood, glancing at Ares, who was watching the scene with a smirk. _It has been balanced as a game_.

“You go right,” Percy said, his voice muffled by his t-shirt, “I go left.”

“Percy,” Nico said urgently. “The distance between us—”

“I know, I know.”

Percy was already dashing at the drakon and Nico had no choice but to follow him. They ran toward the monster and at the last moment, without a word passing between them, Nico veered right and Percy left. The drakon screeched, releasing another noxious cloud, waving his long head until it decided that Nico was the one he wanted to focus on. By that time, Nico had almost reached its flank, but the drakon’s snake-like neck twisted around to get to him. Nico stopped breathing as he was engulfed in another greenish cloud. He ducked to avoid the drakon’s teeth, then punched the ground to summon back the dead Revolutionary soldiers. Instead of biting Nico, the drakon found himself with a swarm of skeletons in the face.

Reaching the drakon’s scaled flank, Nico tried to climb it, but his hands and feet couldn’t find purchase. His sword scraped at the scales, but they were too hard and he couldn’t slid his blade under one of them as he’d done with the serpent in Lake Huron. Nico cursed; his shirt was slipping off his face and he had to adjust it again. _Screw it_ , he thought, and shadow-traveled to the top of the drakon’s head. 

When he left the shadow, he understood his mistake as the dizziness hit. The drakon shook its head, probably sensing him there, and Nico lost his balance. He found himself flat on his stomach, arms spread for a better grip; he couldn’t even think of trying to get up again, not just because the drakon kept shaking his head but also because his own head wouldn’t stop spinning. He was too far from Percy, which meant that Percy was too far from _him_ , and wherever he was he probably felt as bad as Nico did. Biting his lip, Nico started to slowly creep down the drakon’s neck. The monster threw its head left and right and Nico’s legs flew off its body.

“Nico!”

A hand closed on Nico’s ankle and the dizziness vanished. Somehow, Percy had managed to climb onto the drakon’s back with only his hands and feet. 

“I’ll distract it!” Percy said. “Go for his eyes!”

The water from the river rumbled and Nico saw a wave rise from it. Percy’s hand released his ankle and Nico didn’t waste time shadow-traveling again, back to the top of the drakon’s head. From his vantage point he could see the river water whirl around the drakon, catching the dead soldiers in its current. Nico ordered them to climb on the drakon and try hacking at its scales with their weapon—they had little chance to harm it, but at least they could offer an added distraction. Unfortunately the monster started thrashing around in its fury and Nico fell to his knees. 

“Hold on, Nico!” Percy shouted. 

The water rose and part of it coiled around the base of the drakon’s neck, restraining it a little, but not enough that it couldn’t move its head and try to dislodge Nico from it. Nico started to move cautiously down the middle of the drakon’s head, between the two eyes. The eyes, two red, burning irises, simultaneously focused on him and the drakon let out an earth-splitting screeching cry, accompanied by another poisonous cloud. Nico started coughing uncontrollably. He lost his grip on his sword and it dropped down in the water. He growled in frustration, pounding his fist on one of the drakon’s titanium-hard scales. If he had no weapon, then how could he pierce the drakon’s eyes?

_Night is falling, you idiot. You have plenty of weapons around._

Nico called onto all the shadows that were cast by the trees, the bridge and the memorials as the sun went down—the long, deep shadows of that liminal time between day and night. He made them hard as steel, sharpened them like blades, and threw them at the drakon’s eyes with all his might. Some of them grazed the hard scales ineffectively, one sliced Nico’s own shoulder, but three of them stabbed the eyes—two in the left one, and one in the right one. 

The beast howled in pain, then collapsed over itself like a crumpling house of cards. Nico was dropped in the water as it receded and rolled over on the muddy river bank, stopping short of falling into the river. Immediately he jumped back to his feet, but the drakon had been reduced to monster dust and there was only Percy there, breathing hard and clinging to Riptide. 

The sound of clapping startled Nico. “Excellent!” Ares exclaimed. “Good fight, you two.”

He was smiling, but there was something too smug about his smile. Nico couldn’t put his finger on it. Adrenaline was still coursing through his veins, his body singing with it. A red tinge colored the edge of his vision field. The fight had stopped, they’d _won_ , and yet Nico felt like he was still in the heat of it. He saw his sword lying in the soggy grass, glowing purple, and he went to grab it. He couldn’t make himself sheathe it back. The fight wasn’t over; he knew it in his bones. 

“Our questions—you said—” Nico said haltingly. Why was it so hard to speak? His thoughts were muddled, too, and his head hurt.

“Oh, right, I said I would answer your questions if you won. Well, I guess you deserve it. No, I didn’t kill Adonis. I don’t know who did. Swear it on the river Styx, blah, blah, blah.”

Nico had thought that Ares might not know anything about Adonis’ death. Their current hypothesis was that Apollo was the culprit. And yet, fury filled his chest at Ares’ dismissive answers. What a fucking waste of—

“Oh, that’s great!” Percy said, sounding as angry as Nico felt. He was still breathing harshly and he hadn’t put away Riptide either. “Almost got killed for _nothing_. Typical.”

Water crashed on the river bank, washing over Nico’s shoes and soaking the bottom of his jeans. “Gods damn it, Percy!” Nico growled. “Keep it _in_. I’m tired of getting drenched because of your outbursts!”

“Don’t tell me to calm down! Gods, you—” Percy buried a hand in his hair and tugged at it. “You sound just like Annabeth.”

The name was a like a drop of oil thrown into a brazier. Flames swept over Nico’s mind, wiping it clean with white-hot anger.

“Annabeth, right,” he said in a clipped voice. “Perfect Annabeth. So sorry you got stuck with _me_ instead. I know you can’t wait to get rid of me, can’t wait—”

Percy’s words overlapped his. “ _I_ can’t wait to get rid of _you?_ Wow, that’s rich coming from you. You’re the one who acts half of the time like you can’t stand me. I never know what you think! It’s like you’re keeping this big secret, like—Are you on a mission for your dad? Has he asked you to lie to me again?”

“Don’t _talk_ about my dad!” Nico had advanced on Percy, but he only realized it once he was face-to-face with him, within striking distance. He’d risen his sword, and so had Percy. “You’re no better than the rest of them, Percy Jackson. Looking down on my dad because he’s the Lord of the Underworld. Everyone’s convenient bad guy. He—”

“Your dad kidnapped my _mother!_ He threw me in his dungeon, acting like I should be grateful that he didn’t kill me!”

“Oh, because _your_ father is any better! My mother was _killed_ , killed in front my eyes because Zeus and Poseidon felt so threatened—"

“Hey, _Zeus_ killed your mother!”

“Yeah, as if that wasn’t what Poseidon wanted too. Bunch of self-righteous assholes. Thinking they’re better than us. _You_ think you’re better than me, don’t you, Percy? The Olympians’ golden boy.” The words spilled out of Nico like vomit. He could see them hit Percy, see his face tighten with each blow, but he was unable to stop himself. Having Percy’s total, undivided attention, holding the power to make him react, was a potent drug and he was getting high on it. “Everyone’s favorite hero, Percy Jackson, son of the sea god! But, really, one has to wonder: what makes you so great?”

He saw the exact moment when Percy snapped. Percy hurled himself at him with an unarticulated cry of rage, waving his sword, and Nico welcomed it with open arms. The first clash of their swords echoed through his whole body. Percy was stronger and would win in a duel of strengths, so Nico stepped away, throwing his sword to the side. He used the split-second when Percy was off-center to attack mercilessly. It felt good to let go, to pour all of his frustration and anger into the fight. The red that had tinted the edge of his vision before was now a veil that colored everything with blood. 

Percy’s blade grazed his shoulder and Nico laughed at the pain. His sword scraped over Percy’s ribs, cutting a bloody line on his orange t-shirt. Even the draining power of the Stygian iron didn’t slow down Percy. His face was screwed up with fury and bloodlust, the same feelings that seethed in Nico’s chest. There was a sound in Nico’s ears, which he thought was the sound of his blood roaring but realized was in fact laughter. At the corner of his eye he could see Ares laugh himself silly. In his hands he held an object, round and bronze-colored, something that looked familiar—

_Wait, something’s wrong._

The thought was shattered by another assault by Percy, and Nico narrowly avoided getting stabbed in the shoulder. The fight left him no room for thought. His arm rattled from the impact of Percy’s strikes. Percy was so fast that Nico could only just keep up. The image of Ares laughing faded from his mind, an unimportant background element. There was only Percy—Percy, who he had to strike down, who he needed to make bleed, who he wanted to hear scream. Percy, who he loved hopelessly.

“Percy?” Nico said. He felt like he’d just woken up from a nightmare. His sword arm went down. “Percy, I think—”

He saw the sword pierce his stomach before the pain hit. He saw Percy’s eyes widen, surprise, then horror spreading across his face. 

Percy started babbling. “Nico? Oh, Nico, gods. I’m so—I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Nico, say something. Nico? _Nico!_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Evil laughter*


	8. Chapter 8

_No, no, no, no, no._

This was the word that Percy chanted in his mind, as if by thinking it hard enough he could erase the last few minutes. Nico’s knees buckled. Percy flung his sword aside—it would come back in his pocket anyway—and threw his arms around Nico’s shoulders, guiding his fall, down on his knees in the mud. Nico wasn’t unconscious but his eyes were unfocused, rolling in their sockets. 

“Ares!” Percy shouted, but when he looked around he saw that the god had vanished. Left them both here, alone in the park as it was getting dark, while Nico was _bleeding out_ —

“Nico! Stay awake.” Percy lightly shook Nico. “Stay with me. You need to keep pressure on the wound. I have to look for our ambrosia. Nico, did you hear me?”

“Ye—yeah,” Nico mumbled. “It hurts.”

Percy bit his lip until it drew blood. “I know,” he said. “I’m sorry. I have to leave you alone for a moment but I’ll be back. Okay?”

“Okay.” 

Nico pressed both hands against his wound and blood seeped between his fingers. Percy delicately lied him down on the grass. When he tried to get to his feet, though, his head spun and he couldn’t manage it on the first try. A line of fire burned across his chest, and when Percy felt for it with his fingers, they came back bloody. This was the wound from Nico’s Stygian blade, draining his strength. Percy clenched his teeth and dragged himself up. 

They’d left their backpacks next to the river, before Ares—that _asshole_ —had shown up. It was dark enough now that it was getting hard to see and Percy couldn’t find them. He searched the river bank extensively until he found his own backpack, torn apart and empty. The ambrosia must have fallen in the grass or in the river, and Nico’s backpack must have been dragged away by the water. Percy kneeled over the river, plunging his arms into the water, looking for the backpack, focusing until he got a headache. He mentally called onto the few fish that swam up the river, but they were either apathetic or didn’t understand what he wanted. _Son of the sea god! What’s a ‘patback,’ son of the sea god?_ Stupid fucking fish.

Percy stumbled back to Nico, who was still conscious but whose hands were a bloody mess. “I couldn’t find our ambrosia,” Percy told him, making a very conscious effort not to let his voice quiver. “I’ll carry you out of the park, and then we should find someone who can call 911 for us. It’s not that late. We’ll find someone.”

“Hmm, ‘kay.” 

When he tried to haul Nico up, he found that he couldn’t do lift him off the ground without faltering. Nico tried to help, but he was weakening by the minute and Percy’s strength was failing him too. His vision was getting blurry, flickering lights dancing in front of his eyes at the effort. There was no way he could carry Nico out of the park. He didn’t have any ambrosia. He didn’t have a cellphone and he couldn’t I-M anyone if there was no light. Nico was going to die here and Percy would have been the one to kill him.

“No,” he said out loud, fingernails digging into his palms. “There has to be something. There has to be a way—”

They weren’t far from Boston, were they? The city should be ten or fifteen miles away. Boston, where Annabeth’s cousin Magnus sometimes hung out. Magnus, who had freaking _healing powers_. Of course, they had to get there first, and there were no other options than shadow-travel. Nico was very weak, but shadow-travel was much easier at night, and if Magnus could heal him quickly—

“Nico? Hey, Nico.”

Nico coughed and specks of blood colored his lips. “Mm?”

“I have an idea to help you, but you’d have to shadow-travel us to Boston. Can you do that? You’d need to take us to a mansion, uh, it’s a shelter for homeless teen, now, ‘Chase Space.’ It’s, uh—” What had Annabeth told him about it, again? “It’s on Commonwealth Avenue. The Back Bay Neighborhood. If you can get us there, then I know someone who can heal you. Can you make it? Nico?”

“Yes,” Nico said, sounding irritable. He raised a bloody hand to rub his face, smearing blood on his cheek. “Boston, you say. Commonwealth Avenue. Okay.” His words slurred a little. “Let’s go.”

Percy only had the time to grab Nico’s sword, which he’d dropped after being stabbed, before Nico swathed them in shadow. Maybe it was Percy’s imagination, or the effect of his own exhaustion, but the travel felt more brutal than usual. In the space between somewhere and nowhere Percy was violently jostled, like a disarticulated puppet blown away in a hurricane. He tightly held onto Nico, afraid for the first time that they would get yanked apart. Something howled in his ears and he could swear that he heard teeth snap close to his face. He and Nico bounced off a hard floor and Percy hurriedly angled away from Nico, heaving and then puking his lunch. 

He wiped his mouth, breathless and shaky. Nico was slumped over him, completely still. They were both covered in blood and mud. His throat tight with panic, Percy checked for Nico’s breathing—Nico was alive, but he was out cold and wouldn’t wake up. It was only after trying to fruitlessly shake him awake for maybe a minute that Percy finally took stock of their surroundings. They were at the top of a flight of stairs that led to an entrance door, the heavy, dark oak kind that spoke of old wealth. It was completely dark, now, but Percy could make out the shapes of trees and flowerbeds, as though the house was surrounded by a garden. If the gods were on their side, they’d made it to the Chase mansion in Boston. _Please, please, please._

Percy extracted himself from under Nico’s dead weight. “Sorry,” he murmured to his friend’s unconscious form.

He tottered to his feet and staggered to the door, fighting off vertigo at every step. “Help!” he called, pounding on the wooden panel with his fist, using all the strength he had left. “Please, help us!”

He hoped Magnus was there. He hoped that if he wasn’t, then they had an easy way of contacting him. He hoped that he hadn’t made the wrong call by making Nico bring them here—maybe he should have asked Nico to aim for a hospital instead, but he didn’t know where the closest hospital was, and Nico always had better luck when he knew where he was going, and—

The door opened. Percy, who’d been half-leaning on it, fell forward, right into the arms of a man who said, “Holy Heimdall!”

Percy pushed away from him. The man was dark-haired and dark-skinned, shorter than Percy, and he wore a flowery waistcoat over a turquoise shirt. The shirt was now stained with the blood and mud that Percy had all over himself.

“Magnus,” Percy said, griping the man’s arms. “Magnus Chase. Is he here? My friend needs help. He’s—”

The man looked past Percy and blanched, then cursed again. He must have seen Nico. “Is he—” he said.

“He’s not dead!” Percy shouted. He may have gripped the man a little too tight because he saw him wince. “Sorry, I’m sorry. Can you get Magnus, please? _Please_.”

“All right, all right,” the man said in a soothing voice. “Why don’t you come in?”

“But Nico—”

“We’re taking care of your friend.” The man shouted orders at people Percy couldn’t see. “I’m Blitzen. What’s your name?”

“Percy,” Percy mumbled. “Percy Jackson.”

“Hey, aren’t you the kid that tried to teach Magnus sailing? His cousin Annabeth’s boyfriend?”

“I—”

Percy felt dazed, and like he’d lost his grasp on everything. The man, Blitzen, shepherded him into the entrance hall like a lost lamb. The only thing Percy could focus on was the all-consuming fear that Nico would die. Would Magnus be mad that Percy had showed up on his doorstep, asking for help, when Annabeth had broken up with him?

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s me.”

Blitzen bossed around a couple of teenage boys, making them carry Nico inside. His nose wrinkled at the blood stains and the pool of vomit right outside the door, but he only told the boys, “Take him upstairs. Get Magnus.” He then turned to Percy. “Why don’t you go with me in the kitchen and I’ll—”

“Wait!” Percy said, calling out to the boys who were carrying Nico up the stairs. “Where are you taking him? I have to—”

“Take it easy,” Blitzen said. “Magnus will fix your friend. You need—”

The boys and Nico had almost disappeared around the curve of the staircase when Percy’s vision blackened.

“Whoa!” Blitzen exclaimed, catching him. “Maybe you need a bit of healing yourself. Are you hurt anywhere or is this all his blood?”

“I have to go with him,” Percy said weakly, breathing shallowly through his nose. “We’ve been bonded to each other by a god. We can’t be more than forty feet apart.”

“Who did—Okay, questions later, let’s just reunite you with him.”

Blitzen had to half-haul Percy most of the way upstairs, which was awkward considering the height difference between them. Nico had been carried into a small room with blue wallpaper and deposed on one of twin beds. Percy dropped to the floor, his back on the wall. The carpet was thick and the temptation to lie down and sleep here was overpowering. People were moving about the room, but Percy only started paying attention again when he recognized Magnus’ voice.

“Percy? What happened?”

“His friend needs help,” Blitzen said. “I think it’s pretty urgent.”

“Please, help him,” Percy begged, rising on his knees like a supplicant. 

Magnus went over to the bed and grimaced when he saw in what state Nico was. “There’s blood everywhere,” he said. “Where’s—”

“He’s been stabbed in the stomach,” Percy said in a tight, controlled voice. This was _not_ the moment to fall apart. “That’s his most serious wound, but, but, I think he has a few others.”

Magnus leaned over Nico. He had his back on Percy, who couldn’t see what he was doing, but after a few seconds Magnus’ entire form was enveloped in a soft, golden halo, as if he’d been body-dipped into honey. It lasted a few more seconds before it started to dim. 

Magnus exhaled loudly. “Wow,” he said. 

“You okay, kid?” Blitzen said. 

“Yeah, it’s just—that was kind of a lot.”

“Did it work?” Percy asked anxiously, struggling to get back to his feet. “Is he okay, now?”

“I don’t know.”

Percy walked around Magnus to the foot of the bed so he could get a look. Nico didn’t appear much better. He was still paler than his usual, still blood-stained—still unconscious.

“I’m not sure why he isn’t waking up,” Magnus said. He took one of Nico’s hands in his, giving it a squeeze. “He feels very cold.”

“He’s always cold,” Percy said. “And he’s—he’s—We shadow-traveled here, and it really exhausts him.”

“You did what now?” Blitzen said.

Now that Percy’s worry had abated—although there was still a slow pulse of it at the center of his chest—he had enough presence of mind to notice that the boys who’d carried Nico in had deserted the room and that the door was closed. Magnus probably wanted to keep awareness of his powers under wraps. 

“Shadow-travel is one of Nico’s powers,” Percy said. “It’s like teleportation, but scary. Nico is a son of Hades.”

“Sounds like a cool power,” Magnus said. “I guess you’re right. He must be all tapped out. Because my healing worked, so he should be waking up.”

“Well, not that this hasn’t been fun, but I should be making dinner,” Blitzen said. “There’s a bathroom one door away, feel free to take a shower, Percy. I think it’s close enough that your bond should allow it.”

Blitzen left and Percy looked down at himself, suddenly self-conscious about how dirty he was. 

“Do you need any healing too?” Magnus asked. “Is all the blood Nico’s or are you hurt too?”

“I’m—I’m fine,” Percy said. “I don’t want to tire you out.”

“Hey, don’t worry about that. It takes a lot to drain me with healing.”

“I—” Percy chewed on his lip. 

Now that his desperation over Nico’s fate had lost its edge, he was feeling guilty about abusing Magnus’ kindness. The fact that there was a vague family resemblance between him and Annabeth didn’t help; those grey eyes felt like they could read him like a book.

“Annabeth and I broke up,” he said very quickly.

Magnus looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “I know,” he said. “Annabeth told me. Did you seriously think that I would refuse to help you and your friend because you’re not my cousin’s boyfriend anymore? That’s hurtful, man. So, healing or no healing?”

The pain from the wound on Percy’s chest had woken up and it burned like the fiery water of the river Phlegethon. “Yeah,” he said. “Thank you.”

Magnus held out a hand but stopped himself before he touched Percy. “Full disclosure, though. When I heal someone, I get some feedback from them.”

“Feedback?”

“I see some of their memories. Some people hate it, so it’s up to you. Your friend was in really bad shape, so I thought this wasn’t the moment to get ethical.”

“He’s going to hate it,” Percy said, his eyes drawn to Nico’s still form. “But at least he’ll be alive to bitch about it. I don’t care if you see my memories. Go ahead.”

Magnus’ healing suffused him with a gentle warmth and Percy closed his eyes in relief as every ache in his body left him, even those he hadn’t been aware of. Once Magnus was done he still felt exhausted, but not like he’d been beaten down repeatedly with a stick. He yawned, fighting the pull of sleep. 

“Get some sleep, man,” Magnus told him, patting his shoulder.

“I want to take a shower first. Water will help, and I don’t want to put blood and mud on everything.”

“Sure. I’ll lend you some clothes. We’re not exactly the same size, but it should be fine.” Magnus paused, looking like he had more to say but wasn’t sure he should say it. “Have your shower,” he finally said. “And then go to bed. You look like you need it.”

\---

Percy took a shower, then a nap. He felt infinitely better afterward, except that when he woke up, Nico was still unconscious. Someone had washed the blood off his face and changed his stained t-shirt and jeans. His new t-shirt was red, with a yellow bolt of lightning drawn at the center of his chest. 

Percy sat on the edge of Nico’s bed. He didn’t know what time it was, but at least it was daytime, and patches of sunlight teased Nico’s pale face. His chest moved up and down with his breathing, but that was about the only thing that comforted Percy. They’d been at the shelter for an entire night and Nico still wasn’t waking up. What if he never did?

_You did this. You killed him._

He was a bad luck magnet to the di Angelo siblings. Percy covered his mouth with a hand and breathed sharply through his nose. His other hand slid over the covers until he was almost touching one of Nico’s hands, the one where he wore his skull ring. A ray of sunlight made the ring glitter. Percy wanted to take the hand and hold it, in the hope that it would annoy Nico into waking up. 

The door opened and Magnus entered. “Any change?” he asked, but then he looked at the bed and saw the answer for himself. “I could try healing him again,” he said, but he didn’t sound convinced. 

“I’m sure you did everything you could already,” Percy said. 

Magnus sat down on the bed next to Percy, facing him. “What happened, anyway?”

Percy kept his eyes on Nico. “Didn’t you see my memory of it?”

“No. I saw… other things. You lead an interesting life.”

“Says the guy who gets killed every day in Hotel Vahine and owns a talking sword,” Percy said with a snort.

“Hotel Valhalla,” Magnus corrected. “Hey, don’t diss it. It’s a very rewarding way of life. You haven’t experienced fun until you’ve played Marco Polo to the death.”

Percy opened his mouth to retort something equally witty, but what came out instead was, “It was me. I stabbed him.”

“What?”

Percy gave Magnus a halting account of their mission for Aphrodite, how they’d arranged a meeting with Ares to interrogate him, found themselves fighting a drakon, and then each other. “I can still see myself doing it but I can’t understand how I got there. He’s… well, he’s a frustrating guy, and it’s not the first time I’ve been mad at him, but I’ve never—” He got too choked up to finish that sentence. “If he wakes up, he’s going to hate me.”

“He won’t,” Magnus said.

It startled Percy out of his spiraling misery. “How do you know?”

“I just don’t think he’s going to hate you,” Magnus said, looking awkward, and it reminded Percy that Magnus had seen into Nico’s memories. Maybe he had the piece that Percy missed, the one that would help make sense of Nico. He almost asked about it, but Magnus didn’t seem like a guy who would spill someone else’s secrets.

“He _should_ hate me. I almost killed him.”

“The way you tell it, it seems like you were trying to kill each other.”

“But he stopped. I didn’t. And now he’s not waking up!”

“Something seems to have been influencing you both. Look, Percy,” Magnus said, fingering the pendant that Percy knew would turn into Jack, his talking sword, “I don’t know you very well, but I know Annabeth. She wouldn’t have dated you for so long if you were the kind of guy who stabbed his friends in the stomach for fun.”

“She broke up with me,” Percy pointed out.

“Yeah, well, she didn’t give me any details, but she doesn’t seem to have any hard feelings against you. I’m sure Nico will be fine. I can heal his wounds, but if his unconsciousness is related to his powers, then it’s not surprising that my healing didn’t help. Norse demigod powers probably don’t mesh well with Greek demigod powers.”

“Yeah,” Percy said. “Maybe.”

Nico didn’t wake up for days. Percy tried to call Hazel and Reyna to tell them what had happened, but he couldn’t make any Iris Message connect. He tried Camp Half Blood, too, without any success. It wasn’t normal, and Percy was sure that something must be blocking him, but as days passed and Nico’s state remained unchanged, that became a remote worry.

Because of the bond, he couldn’t go very far out of the room where Nico was sleeping. Except for bathroom trips, he didn’t try very hard. His meals were brought to him by Blitzen or by a very pale, tall man who never spoke—it took Percy an embarrassing amount of time to realize it was because the man was deaf. Percy never saw much of the shelter’s residents, maybe because they’d been told to leave him alone, or because they thought he was weird to remain cooped up in a room with his unconscious friend. Magnus and his friend Alex Fierro—his girlfriend? boyfriend? Percy wasn’t sure of their relationship status, as well as of Alex’s gender on any given day—visited him often, trying to cheer him up. He appreciated their efforts, but the only thing that could make him feel better would be if Nico woke up.

He’d been given books, but he wasn’t much of a reader on a good day and he was so worried about Nico that he had even more trouble focusing than usual. Alex brought him an iPod that she’d filled with ‘emo music, so you can do some quality brooding’—her words—and he spent most of his days listening to it, watching Nico for any sign that he was waking up. He didn’t sleep much, and when he did his sleep was plagued with nightmares: he dreamed of stabbing Nico, again and again, and of course, as always when he was already feeling vulnerable, he dreamed of the unrelenting agony of Tartarus. As he slept, he was haunted by the despair that had pulled him down during his every moment there, by the memory of dying from the _arai_ curses, of abandoning Bob to his fate. He dreamed of trying to drown Aklhys, except that sometimes instead of the goddess of misery it was Nico he was making choke on poison while Annabeth looked at him, pale and frightened.

If sleep was bad, waking up wasn’t much better. He watched Nico for so long that he was sure to remember every minute detail of his face for the rest of his life, even if they stopped seeing each other for decades. He studied the cut of his cheekbones, the shadows cast by his eyelashes, the very faint freckles dusted over his nose that he’d never noticed before. Wisps of his black hair stuck out in every direction and Percy was tempted more than once to comb his fingers through it and smooth it out. Eventually, Percy’s eyes left Nico’s face to linger on the line of his collarbone, the hollow of his throat, his arms and his hands, long and pale. Sometimes, when he watched for too long, Percy started to feel funny, like his skin was too tight and too hot, and he had to take a walk around the room until the feeling dissipated. Being unable to go outside was getting to him, so sometimes he opened the window and stuck his head out, breathing in the hot polluted Boston air. Alex had suggested that they carry Nico around so Percy could leave the room—horrifyingly, Percy had been tempted to agree, but if Nico heard that he’d been paraded around in his unconscious state, there would be hell to pay after he woke up.

_Wake up, Nico. Be mad at me, hate me all you want, but please wake up._

On the third day of Nico’s coma, the weather changed drastically. First it rained, which came as a relief after the stifling heat, then a hail storm descended upon them. The next day, it snowed, and Percy suspected that it was Demeter throwing a fit because she hadn’t gotten her daughter back yet.

“Man,” Magnus said when Percy explained it to him. “I hope you didn’t ruin summer. I might take it personally. My dad is god of summer,” he added at Percy’s inquisitive look. 

“Can’t your dad do anything about this, then?” Percy asked. 

“Yeah, I don’t know. I think gods from different mythologies kind of keep out of each other’s business. If Demeter wants to screw up the weather to make a point, then I don’t think any Norse gods will want to stick their nose into it.”

“Yeah, just thinking about it gives me a headache,” Percy said, rubbing his forehead. 

“You look terrible,” Magnus said, studying him.

“Gee, thanks,” Percy said. “I sure love that Chase sense of tact.”

“No, I mean… how long are we supposed to wait until he wakes up?”

Percy stiffened. “I didn’t mean to impose on you for so long.”

“Gods, that’s not what I meant. You’re welcome here. You can stay as long as you need. But, I don’t know, if Nico doesn’t wake up, maybe we need to ask for help. On the Greek side, preferably.”

Percy had thought about taking Nico to Camp Half-Blood, providing he could get a car, but he’d worried about transporting him. Not knowing exactly why he wouldn’t wake up, he didn’t want to risk making it worse by bundling him in the back of a car. Not to mention that although he knew how to drive, Percy hadn’t taken the time to pass his license, which he dearly regretted now. But Magnus was right; the clock was ticking and their mission’s deadline was closing in. 

“If he hasn’t woken up by tomorrow,” Percy said hollowly, “then we’ll talk about it.”

As if he’d somehow heard Percy say it, Nico woke up the next morning. 

Percy was sitting on his own bed, listening to music and only glancing from time to time in Nico’s direction. Staring at him all day long had started to feel obsessive in a very uncomfortable way, so he tried not to do it too much. When Nico first stirred, Percy thought that it was only his imagination. It had happened before, Percy’s mind convincing him that he’d seen Nico twitch, and every time he’d been disappointed. Still, he tugged his earbuds out of his ears and slid off the bed to get closer. He saw Nico’s eyes move under his eyelids, then his brow furrow and his eyelids flutter.

“Nico? Sweet Hades, Nico, can you hear me? It’s Percy. Can you wake up?”

Nico made a humming sound. His face screwed up. His eyes opened a sliver then closed immediately, as if daylight had hurt him. Percy hurriedly pulled on the curtains to dim the light.

“I drew the curtains,” he said, lowering his voice so it wouldn’t feel like an aggression to Nico’s awakening senses. “Can you open your eyes for me now?”

Nico opened his eyes. They were unfocused at first, then startled when he recognized Percy. 

“Per—” He cleared his throat. “Percy?”

“Yeah,” Percy said, feeling his face split in two with a grin. “Yeah, it’s me. You were unconscious for a while.”

“Am I—” Nico’s hand twitched and Percy immediately understood his concern. 

“You’re fine. You’re not shadowy or anything. You just wouldn’t wake up—” Percy’s voice broke up oddly on the last word and he swallowed. “But you’re fine, now.”

“We were—” Nico frowned, looking like he was thinking hard. “We were fighting.”

“Oh, uh, yeah. Ares made us fight a drakon, and then—”

Nico’s eyes met Percy’s and held them for a long moment. Percy’s breath got stuck in his chest, something like despair rising in him when he saw that Nico was remembering what had happened. He waited for Nico to get mad, to order Percy to get away from him, but all Nico did was look away and start pushing himself up on his elbows.

“Hey, not so fast!” Percy exclaimed. “You were asleep for a long time. Take it easy! Damn it, Nico.”

He grabbed the pillow from his own bed so he could add it to Nico’s and stack both pillows behind Nico’s back, propping him up. Nico’s pale face had gotten sweaty from the effort.

“How long?” he asked hoarsely.

“Five days.”

Nico swore under his breath. “Any sign from Aphrodite? Or anyone?”

“Nothing from Aphrodite. I can’t I-M anyone; my guess is that Apollo is trying to isolate us. The weather is kind of screwy, probably Demeter losing patience.”

Nico looked focused inward for a moment, absorbing all the information, then his eyes flickered, taking in the room. “Where are we, by the way?”

“Chase Space in Boston, a shelter for homeless teens. Annabeth owns the place, technically, but it’s her cousin Magnus who manages it.”

“Boston,” Nico said. “I remember you telling me to go to Boston. And—”

The door opened and Alex came in. She started saying something as she entered, then cut herself off when she saw that Nico was awake. “Oh, look at that. Sleeping Beauty awakes.”

Nico stared at her—or rather him, Percy thought. Something about Alex’s voice today told him it was a male day. Alex reacted to Nico’s staring by getting on the defensive, or maybe on the offensive. He squared his shoulders, putting up his chin, and said belligerently, “What’s your problem, comatose boy? No one ever told you it’s rude to stare?”

“You’re dead,” Nico said.

Alex blinked, having obviously expected something very different. “Um, okay. How do you—"

“Hey, what’s going on?” Magnus peered from over Alex’s shoulder. “Oh, Nico, you’re awake! That’s great.”

“You’re dead too,” Nico said, hands clenching his blanket. “Percy, where in Tartarus did you take me?”

He looked ready to bolt, and shadow-travel would probably be a very bad idea in his current state, so Percy grabbed his wrist and hastened to say, “It’s all right, Nico, they’re friends. Magnus here is Annabeth’s cousin—” Magnus gave Nico a little wave. “—and this is his friend Alex, who’s sometimes a girl, sometimes a boy—you’re _he_ today, aren’t you, Alex?”

“Well spotted, Jackson,” Alex told him with a smirk. “There’s hope for you yet.”

“And Magnus and Alex are indeed sort of dead.”

“We’re totally dead,” Magnus said. “I mean, we died and were revived, I guess? But how do you know that?” he asked Nico.

“Son of Hades, remember?” Percy said. It hadn’t occurred to him that Nico would notice something different about Magnus and Alex, but it made sense.

“There’s a sort of… aura around you,” Nico said. “And it feels like death. I’m quite familiar with the feeling, but it’s not like with ghosts or skeletons. It’s—it’s different. I’ve never seen anything like it.” _And I don’t like it,_ Percy thought he left unsaid.

“So we have an _aura of death_ around us?” Alex said.

“I don’t think I like the idea,” Magnus said, frowning.

“Are you kidding? It’s awesome!”

“Magnus and Alex are, what’s it called, energy something,” Percy said.

Alex rolled his eyes, as he did every time Percy got the name wrong. “We’re _ein-HER-jar_ ,” he said, enunciating each syllable exaggeratedly. “Einherji in the singular. Dead heroes who now serve in Odin’s eternal army, waiting for Ragnarök where we’ll probably all perish gloriously, for good this time.”

“Wait, Ragnarök?” Nico said, eyes widening.

“Yeah, it’s—” Percy said.

“I know what Ragnarök is,” Nico said. Percy couldn’t help but smile at his irritable tone. The relief of having Nico awake again to get annoyed with him filled him with such giddiness that he wanted to laugh, but was afraid that he would look unhinged. “But it’s _Norse_ mythology.”

“Yep,” Alex said. “Welcome to having your mind blown again.”

“It’s—” Nico turned to Percy, looking lost.

“Don’t think too hard about it,” Percy advised him. He was still holding Nico’s wrist and was becoming intensely aware of it, but couldn’t make himself let go unless Nico told him to. 

“Okay,” Nico said. “Okay. So, are you demigods?”

“Yes,” Magnus said. “I’m a son of Frey, Alex is a child of Loki, but not all of einherjar are demigods. It’s very equalitarian. You just need to die a heroic death to qualify. Then you get to spend the next centuries or millennia until Ragnarök chilling in hotel Valhalla, practicing dying for the great battle.”

“Speak for yourself,” Alex told him, elbowing him in the side. “I practice _fighting_.”

“ _Our_ dead heroes get to spend their afterlife in eternal bliss in Elysium,” Nico said, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, that’s Norse mythology for you,” Magnus said with a shrug. “Cheerfully nihilistic. But it’s not so bad, really. Good accommodations—my room is great—and I made some good friends in Hotel Valhalla.” His eyes lingered on Alex.

“Magnus has healing powers,” Percy said to Nico. “He’s the one who healed you.”

“Thank you,” Nico said.

“Don’t mention it,” Magnus said. “It was nothing.”

He looked away from Nico quickly, a strangely uncomfortable expression on his face. Nico’s stare tended to make people uneasy, but Percy would have thought that Magnus had seen enough in his life to be unfazed by it. Especially since he was maybe sort of dating Alex Fierro.

“We should get Nico something to eat,” Alex declared suddenly. He grabbed Magnus’ arm. “Come on, Magnus, let’s give them a moment.”

Magnus let himself be manhandled like a guy who was used to it and the two left the room, closing the door behind them. Nico’s face was unreadable and Percy’s anxiety from before came back tenfold. When he couldn’t handle the pressure of waiting for Nico to bring up the topic of their fight, he dropped Nico’s wrist and blurted out, “I’m sorry.”

“What for?” Nico said.

Percy bit the inside of his cheek to keep the turmoil of his emotions under control. It was like trying to thank Nico after Tartarus while Nico brushed him off, that infuriating feeling that Nico was trying to cut short any normal dealings between them for some mysterious reason. 

“I almost killed you,” Percy said. He tried to sound matter-of-fact about it, but it came out snappish, which hadn’t been what he was going for at all. _Nico_ was supposed to be mad at him, not the reverse. “I stabbed you and you almost died. The least I can do is to apologize.”

“We were both fighting each other,” Nico said in that same, maddening calm voice, as if he couldn’t understand why Percy was making such a fuss about it. “I remember hurting you. The things I said… I should be apologizing too. They were unwarranted. You’re the most heroic person I know, Percy.”

 _I’m no hero_ , Percy thought. “It’s fine,” he said, nervous fingers tracing the lines of the tattoo on the inside of his arm. “I don’t care about what you said. Since I _stabbed_ you, I don’t have any right to complain.”

“I think Ares was kindling our battle instincts on purpose. I also think he had the Apple of Discord with him. I’m pretty sure I saw it in his hands while we were fighting.”

“Ares had the Apple of Discord?” Percy said, the revelation almost getting him off tracks. “That’s—well, it doesn’t matter. We were both under the influence, but you stopped fighting me. I remember that much. You could control it, and I couldn’t. It’s—” When Nico was asleep, all of Percy’s focus had been on him waking up. Now that he had, other fears were jostling each other in his brain. “It’s not the first time that I have—let’s say anger issues. Since I’ve come back from Tartarus, it’s like… It’s not really that I get angry more easily, but that when I do my anger burns so much quicker and hotter. It’s harder to control than it was. It’s one of the things that soured my relationship with Annabeth. I never hurt her or anything! But I wasn’t easy to live with. And now I—”

“You—” Whatever Nico was going to say, he faltered and looked down. “I’m okay, now. Really, Percy, there’s nothing to apologize for.”

“But you could have died! Gods, Nico, you can’t tell me this is nothing.”

“I’m not afraid of death.” Percy made an exasperated sound in spite of himself and Nico insisted, looking up, “No, for real. Why would I be? I know where I’m going and my dad manages the place.”

“Yeah, okay, you’re not afraid of dying,” Percy said, feeling himself getting angry, which was horribly ironical. “That’s awesome for you, I guess. But what about other people? The people who care about you. What about your sister? Or Reyna, or Jason? Or—” He stumbled over what he wanted to say next, feeling his face heat up under the weight of Nico’s dark eyes. “I’ll just—” he said, meaning to say that he would go out for a walk but remembering in time that he couldn’t. “I’ll just go over there.”

Feeling stupid, but furious, he went to his bed and plugged back his earbuds. It was hard, pretending to ignore Nico after spending days wishing for nothing but for him to be okay. He kept his eyes on the wall, even though every inch of him felt drawn to the other bed. He’d turned down the music enough that he would hear it if Nico tried to speak to him, but Nico made no attempt at getting his attention. When Alex came back later to bring Nico some food, he raised his eyebrows at the mood in the room, but thankfully didn’t comment on it. 

Eventually Nico fell asleep, still too weak to remain awake for long. Only then did Percy allowed himself to look at him and at the way his face smoothed during sleep—normal sleep, this time, unlike the dead-like state of the past few days. It made the lingering nugget of anger in Percy’s chest melt away and left him feeling pretty silly for his bout of temper earlier. Nico was going to be fine and nothing should have been more important than that. 

Percy watched Nico sleep long enough for it to become awkward. Forcing himself to look away, he silently vowed that he would make it up to his friend later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised in the tags, here are the Magnus Chase characters! Hope you enjoyed them. :)


	9. Chapter 9

Nico needed two more days before he felt up to shadow-travel again, two days during which he became increasingly irritated with his body’s short-comings, anxious to get going again. Even if they were convinced that Apollo was behind Adonis’ death, they still had no proof and no idea on how to confront him. If Ares getting the Apple of Discord was another of Apollo’s tricks, then he clearly wasn’t about to take their accusation lying down.

“But how did Apollo know about us meeting up with Ares?” Percy asked, chewing on his cereals. 

They were drawing looks from the rest of the residents taking their breakfast in the dinning room, probably because they’d made something of a grandiose entrance, showing up one night on the shelter’s doorstep, bloodied and beaten up. Nico was used to people looking at him sideways, though, and Percy was a master at obliviousness. 

“I have a theory,” Nico said, pushing back his own bowl. “We can’t I-M anyone right now, which means that he must be messing with it to keep us from communicating with people. A rainbow needs light, after all. If he can do that, then how likely do you think it is that he could spy on I-Ms? The meeting with Ares and the Hunters being in Camp Jupiter’s vicinity were things that I discussed during my I-M with Hazel.”

“Yeah,” Percy said. He dropped his spoon in his bowl and it made a clinking metal-against-porcelain noise. “You think it’ll be safe to shadow-travel to Camp Half-Blood, then?”

“I think so. We’ve been incommunicado for days. He doesn’t know what we’re going to do.”

“Good. Last time kind of messed you up.”

Nico looked at him, surprised, then embarrassed by the concern. For the past two days Percy had been awkwardly nice to him, probably still feeling guilty about that whole stabbing business. Nico hated it. He hated it mostly because there was a deeply buried, shameful part of him that lapped up the attention, the desperate twelve-year-old in him that would have jumped in the River Styx himself for a scrap of Percy’s friendship. But in a few days, if everything went in their favor, the bond would dissolve and Percy would be free to return to his own friends and to his own life and forget everything about that strange month of being chained to Nico. 

Since Nico didn’t want to fight with Percy again, he merely ignored the comment and said, “How should we deal with Apollo? You think Chiron will have some ideas?”

“We could talk to the Apollo kids.”

“They’re going to be thrilled with us accusing their dad of murder.”

“We could talk to Will. I bet he would agree to help us. I think he has a crush on you.”

It was a good thing that Nico hadn’t been drinking or eating anything, because he would certainly have choked on it. “What are you talking about?” he whispered furiously. “How do you even know that Will is… like that?”

“Like guys, you mean?” Percy said, a glint in his eyes telling Nico that he was having fun messing with him. At least he didn’t speak loud enough for anyone to overhear them. “Will is pretty open about it. Everyone knows. Most of everyone, at least.”

“Well,” Nico said, “liking guys doesn’t mean he likes _me_ , just because I’m—I also like guys.” 

“I’m not saying that because I want to shove my two gay friends together,” Percy said. “But when you took off after the battle against Gaia, he was pretty upset.”

“He’s a healer. He was upset that his patient had gotten away.”

“It looked a little more intense than that.” Percy shrugged. “It’s just a feeling I have.”

“Why would—” Nico could feel his face grow warm and it became hard to look at Percy. “Why would anyone have a crush on me?”

Nico glanced at Percy then, and saw him get a little red in the face too. “You say that like it’s absurd. It’s not. You—there’s a lot to like about you.”

Now Nico definitely could _not_ look at Percy. The tips of his ears were on fire. The conversation died in awkward silence and they cleared their dishes to have something to focus on that wasn’t each other. 

They decided to leave the next morning, after profusely thanking Magnus and his friends for their help. Alex gifted to Nico a t-shirt that he could wear instead of the flashy red one he’d been given to replace the one Percy had ruined by stabbing through it.

“Your style isn’t my style,” Alex said, pointing at her own flamboyant green and pink outfit, “but I like people who own up to what they are.”

The t-shirt was black, which made it instantly better than anything else that Nico had worn from Chase space. On the front was written in large, white block letters, ‘SOME DAYS YOU ARE THE AXE, SOME DAYS YOU ARE THE DECAPITATED HEAD.’

“It’s an einherjar’s saying,” Alex explained. “Odin liked it so much that he had t-shirts made for the gift shop.”

“Thanks, it’s great,” Nico said honestly. 

“Please save summer,” Magnus said to both Nico and Percy. “I hate this weather.” 

Out of the window they could see a corner of the dirty, weeping sky. Rain mixed with snow had been a constant since Nico had woken up. One of the good things about going back to Camp Half-Blood was that they’d be able to enjoy the camp weather magic. 

“We’ll do our best,” Percy said gloomily. 

Before they left, while Percy was in the bathroom, Magnus signaled Nico that he wanted to talk him. He walked as far as the bond between Percy and Nico would allow, as though he wanted to make sure Percy couldn’t hear them. This made Nico both curious and a little apprehensive. 

“There’s something I thought I should tell you,” Magnus said in a low voice. They were alone in the hallway; even Alex had left them, muttering something about pottery. 

“What is it?” Nico asked, his apprehension growing.

“When I heal people, I sometimes see some of their memories. The worse the injury is, the more I see. You were kind of dying when I took care of you.”

A hand of ice closed around Nico’s heart. “What did you see?” he asked tensely.

“Well, a lot. A black-haired girl who looked like you. Lots of skeletons and ghosts and a place which I guess is your father’s palace. A creepy ghost dude who kept whispering to your ear.”

“Minos,” Nico said, even though Magnus probably didn’t care about what the ghost’s name had been, or had seen it in Nico’s memories. He didn’t think that this was what Magnus was aiming at. “What else did you see?”

“Well, lots of monsters, being trapped in what looked like a big jar—aaaaaannd that you’re crazy in love with Percy.”

Nico cringed at hearing the words ‘crazy in love’ said out loud, even if they weren’t inaccurate. “You won’t—”

“Tell Percy? What do you take me for, man? I wouldn’t do that. I just, I don’t know, felt awkward that I knew so much about you without you being aware of it. Also, it’s none of my business—” The words set Nico’s teeth on edge; saying ‘it’s none of my business’ amounted to admitting that you’d decided to make it your business anyway. “—but I think you should tell him.”

“You’re right,” Nico said through his teeth, “it’s none of your business. How can I tell him now? We’re literally chained to each other!”

“Not now, then, but eventually. It’s—I mean, I can’t say much, but I really think it would be better.”

It suddenly occurred to Nico that he’d wounded Percy during their fight—as messed up as it was, he did feel a small amount of pride at this—which meant that Magnus had probably healed him too. If he’d healed Percy, then maybe he’d seen some of his memories. Nico’s stomach knotted at the thought. What had Magnus seen? What if—

“Aw, man, I’m sorry,” Magnus said, grimacing and shaking his head. “You have no reason to care about what I say, plus it’s not like I’m an expert on relationships. Just… ignore what I said, okay? Good luck with the Hercule Poirot business.”

It was pretty much impossible for Nico to ignore what Magnus had said. When Percy left the bathroom and graced Nico with a smile, as though genuinely happy to see him after the few minutes they’d been apart, Nico got weak in the knees. When Percy touched his hand, a little _zing_ of electricity shot through it. The desire to kiss him was a sucker punch in the gut. Nico breathed deeply until he got his galloping heartbeat under control, and only then allowed himself to shadow-travel.

It was warm and sunny at Camp Half-Blood, with only a few wispy clouds to mar the blue sky. Everything looked normal. Campers, nymphs and satyrs, walked around unhurriedly. Nico felt himself relax, even though he hadn’t been aware he’d been worrying about the camp. 

“What do we do?” he asked Percy. “Do we try to see Chiron?”

“Yeah, it might be best.”

As they walked to the Big House, they saw someone run toward them across the strawberry fields. It was Annabeth, her long blond hair floating behind her.

“Percy!” she shouted. “Nico!”

When she reached them, she jumped into Percy’s arms. Nico’s heart drop down to his socks when he saw the look of bewildered awe on Percy’s face. He looked away, feeling his face burn from a mix of embarrassment and anger. The anger was aimed at himself, mostly, for being stupid enough to hope, even for a moment. A bit of it was meant for Magnus, too, for being the one who’d kindled that hope. Nico wished Magnus hadn’t said anything.

“Um, Annabeth?” Percy said, his voice timid. “Is something wrong?”

“No, I’m—” Annabeth pushed away from Percy, her cheeks spotted with pink. “We were just worried about you two. I’m glad that you seem okay.”

“Worried?” Percy said, raising a quizzical eyebrow. “I know we haven’t been in touch for a while, but—”

“Hazel I-M’d us to ask if you’d contacted us. She said you were supposed to meet with Ares and that she hadn’t heard anything from you since then. It’s been a week,” Annabeth said, sounding reproachful.

“Oh, sorry,” Percy said, rubbing the back of his head and giving Annabeth a crooked smile. Nico wanted to punch him in the teeth. “We were… well, I-M wasn’t working for us at all. It’s kind of a long story, but we were going to the Big House to tell it to Chiron. You can join us, if you’d like.”

“I do want to hear that story.” Annabeth directed a smile at Nico. “I’m glad that you’re okay, Nico,” she said.

For a moment, Nico wished that he’d never corrected Percy’s stupid notion that he had a crush on Annabeth. He had a few seconds of being able to envision how easy it would have been to pretend. He could see himself becoming her friend—the only thing that had ever gotten in the way of it happening was her dating Percy, after all. He could have let people, Percy himself, assume what they wanted and…. Nico shook his head and let that bubble pop. Where would that get him, to try and fool people about his sexuality? What would happen if Annabeth started believing he was into her too? 

Nico trailed after Percy and Annabeth, half-listening to them chat. Percy was giving Annabeth a brief preview of what had happened to them and of their current theory about the murder case. Annabeth nodded and hummed, interjecting with her own thoughts. Nico watched as the distance between them diminished until their hands could almost brush. All the way to the Big House he had to swallow down the bile that was rising in his throat. 

Chiron welcomed them with as much joy and relief as Annabeth had—although he didn’t try to hug either of them, thank the gods. Percy gave Chiron and Annabeth the whole story of what had happened since they’d left Camp Half-Blood. As he talked, Nico watched his hands wave for emphasis at key moments in a weirdly fascinating dance. He allowed himself to watch without hiding it, even at the risk that Annabeth or Chiron might notice. It felt like saying goodbye. 

“So, that’s where we are, now,” Percy said as a conclusion to his tale. “We have to find a way to confront Apollo. Apparently he’s not above trying to get us killed, so we welcome any suggestion.”

Chiron shared a look with Annabeth, then said, “I don’t know how helpful this will be to you, but Rachel has been having fragmented visions that we think might have something to do with your investigation. We’ve tried to contact you, but that never worked.”

“We think Apollo is blocking it,” Percy said. 

Chiron nodded, as if he’d been thinking the same thing himself. “I’ve had the thought that something must be interfering with Rachel’s visions. It makes sense that Apollo would have the power to do it. That means at least that whatever Rachel is seeing should be of great interest to you. Annabeth, can you get Rachel for us?”

Annabeth nodded and left, and Chiron turned to Nico and Percy, giving them a thoughtful look. “How are you two doing?” he asked. 

“Fine,” Nico said.

Percy gave him a look, opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, then closed it. While recounting their story, he’d glossed over the fact that he’d stabbed Nico. He’d only said that they’d both fought each other under Ares’ and the Apple of Discord’s influence and that Nico had been badly hurt. Which, as far as Nico was concerned, was the extent of what anyone else needed to know about it, but he would bet that Percy was still consumed with guilt over it. 

“We look forward to this whole thing being over,” Nico said, “It’ll be nice to go back to our own lives. Won’t it be, Percy?”

Percy looked at him, pursing his mouth. “Right,” he said with a smile that didn’t look completely genuine. “I guess it will be.”

“You’ve collaborated rather better than I would have expected,” Chiron said. “These were not easy circumstances for the two of you.”

“Well, I don’t know,” said Percy, “I—”

“You saved my life,” Nico said hurriedly before Percy could start it with his self-recrimination. “More than once. The Apple of Discord messed with our minds a bit, but overall we did do better than _I_ expected.”

Percy frowned, looking irritated with him for some reason, and Chiron’s pensive look got even more pronounced. Thankfully, this was the moment that Annabeth and Rachel chose for their entrance, which dissipated the growing tension. 

“Hey, Percy,” Rachel said. “Hey, Nico.”

Rachel was wearing a large blue t-shirt with a black shawl thrown over her shoulders. She walked barefoot, so casually that Nico wouldn’t have noticed it if he hadn’t been keeping his eyes trained on the floor, trying to ignore the way Percy was looking at him. 

“Hey, Rachel,” Percy said lightly. “How was art camp?”

“It was great,” Rachel said in the same tone. “How’s the murder investigation?”

“Well, I guess Annabeth has told you the relevant bits. It’s been… challenging. But we have a suspect in mind.”

“Yeah,” Rachel said, her expression darkening. “That would certainly explain why my visions have been so wonky.”

“What did you see?”

“Just a few images, really. Flowers, for a start—anemones, more precisely, which is what made us think that it had a relation to your investigation. A swan flying off.”

“Apollo,” Percy said, jaw clenching.

“I also saw a house in the woods and the face of an old man. It isn’t someone I’ve ever seen before and I don’t know the place.”

“Could it be unconnected to the rest?” Percy asked.

“I think it’s connected,” Rachel said, shrugging, “but it’s nothing more than a feeling. As I said, the visions are really fragmented and sometimes fuzzy. There was more, but I couldn’t make it out. Sorry if this isn’t very helpful.”

“Could you draw the house and the man?” Nico asked.

“Sure, no problem.”

Rachel produced a piece of charcoal from one of her jeans’ pockets and Chiron gave her a piece of paper. She made a quick work of the two drawings—it was almost magical to watch her cast apparently random lines on the paper until they formed a picture. The man she drew had a handsome face, with high cheekbones and a broad forehead. Rachel had called him old, but he just had a few fine lines that only seemed to make his face look more refined. The house was actually a small wooden cabin nestled among trees. There was nothing very distinctive about it, and it was tempting to think that it had nothing to do with their quest. Rachel was the Oracle, though, and if she felt her vision had a connection with Adonis, then trusting her instincts was best.

“I have an idea,” Nico said slowly, “but it’s pretty risky.”

Percy lifted an eyebrow at him. “‘Risky’ is my middle name. Also, I don’t particularly want to risk Aphrodite’s wrath if we come to her empty-handed in a few days. What’s your idea?”

“I could try shadow-traveling there,” Nico said, tapping the tip of his index on Rachel’s drawing of the cabin. “If I focused on both drawings of the cabin and of the old man, I could get us there. Of course, there’s no guarantee that I’ll find the right place, and even if I do we don’t know what we’ll find over there.”

“It really is risky,” Chiron said.

“But we don’t have much time left, and I’m really curious about this dude and this house in the woods,” Percy said. “What do they have to do with Adonis’ death? All right, Nico. Let’s do this.”

“If you do this, we won’t have any way to know where you are or contact you, since Apollo is screwing up your I-Ms,” Rachel said. “Give me a moment. I have a cellphone that you could use. I’ll put my number in it so you can call me if you need it.”

Nico had very little experience with cellphones, since he’d been born in an era that didn’t have them and never used them now—cellphones tended to attract monsters, and I-Ms did a fine job of letting him keep in touch with the few people who cared to hear from him. He let Percy handle the device, because although Percy didn’t have one of his own, he was involved in the mortal world enough that he knew how to use it. 

“Wish us luck,” Percy told Chiron, Annabeth and Rachel, flicking his fingers in a military salute. Holding hands, they stepped into the shadows. 

\---

The house was a quaint wooden cabin with a porch. The rocking chair on the porch had a folded newspaper abandoned in it, as though someone had been sitting there just a moment before. Patches of sunlight dappled the grass in the small clearing and chirping birds called out to each other in the canopy. Wherever they were, they were spared from the crappy weather Demeter was inflicting everywhere else. 

“There’s no one in the house or around it,” Nico said.

He sounded sure of himself, so Percy didn’t ask him how he knew it. “Should we have a look around? I’m not keen on breaking and entering, but maybe there’s a window open or something.”

There weren’t any open windows, but when they got to the front door and Percy tried the handle without much conviction, he was surprised to have the door open without any resistance. He shared an uneasy look with Nico before stepping inside.

The main room was small but cozy, with an exposed wood and beamed ceiling, pine floorboards covered by a thick carpet, and a wood stove atop a brick hearth. It was divided between a living area, which contained a narrow dinner table with only one chair, a couch and a deep armchair, and a kitchen area at the back of the room, next to a painted red staircase that led to another floor. It smelled like wood and wood polish, as well as the faint lingering aroma of stewing meat and vegetable. 

Percy stepped further into the room, feeling out of place and a little guilty about intruding, even though the door had been unlocked. Flower pots were lined on the window sill, sporting beautiful multi-colored flowers. Percy had his hand in his pocket, fingers clenched around Riptide. The more normal this place looked and the more it made his hackles raise. If this was a trap, then it was a really weird one, but he’d seen too much not to be cautious.

Nico was frowning at the flowers, of all things. “This is odd,” he said. “I have a crazy idea, but what if—”

Heavy footsteps on the porch’s front steps interrupted him. Percy clutched Nico’s arm, eyes darting frantically around the room for a place where they could hide. He could fight any monster, but didn’t want to be caught sneaking into someone’s home. There was nothing behind or under which they could hide completely, and Percy was starting to panic a little when he felt Nico tug on his arm.

“Let me,” Nico said, and Percy didn’t understand what he meant until Nico drew him to a corner of the room where shadows nestled. The shadows crept over them like a wave lapping onto the shore, and even though Percy could still see what was going on in the room the light had gotten dimmer and the colors had faded, as if he were looking through a veil.

The door opened and Percy’s heart leaped in his chest, even if he was pretty sure that Nico was hiding them from view with shadows. It was still hard not to feel exposed when he could see the person entering unencumbered; Percy couldn’t help but feel that the person would be able to see _him_ too. 

The man who came in was very obviously the one Rachel had seen in her visions. Percy already knew how gifted she was, but it was still a shock to see how perfectly she’d managed to capture every detail of the man’s face, as well as his calm, serene expression. The man wore jeans and a plaid shirt opened on a grey t-shirt; even though he looked utterly normal, there was something a little too well-defined about him that belied that impression. 

The man didn’t seem to have noticed them. He walked to the flowers and watered them, then went to the kitchen area and proceeded to make coffee. Their camouflage must be working. Percy swallowed and took a breath, trying to relax. Nico was right behind him; in fact, they were pressed against each other back to front and Nico had looped an arm around his chest to pull him even tighter, probably to make sure that his shadows would hide both of them. His chin was hooked over Percy’s shoulder and his breath tickled the shell of Percy’s ear. All of Percy’s senses were heightened from the tense situation and he could feel the quickening of Nico’s heart through his back, the hard planes of his chest, and the buckle of Nico’s belt that dug into his ass. His awareness of each of those things bordered on intolerable, like during Nico’s coma at the Chase shelter, his mind stuck in a screaming loop of _Nico, Nico, Nico._

He heard Nico swallow, so close to his ear that it sounded abnormally loud. His own heart was beating erratically and his breathing was getting faster, almost as if he were working himself into a panic. This wasn’t fear that they would get discovered that was affecting him, though. The sounds of the man fiddling with cups in his cupboard echoed distantly. He obviously couldn’t see them and Percy’s worry that he would find them out had all but vanished. But the feeling of Nico behind him, around him, his arm a tight band against his chest, was a maddening one. Percy’s skin was feverishly hot, and on his neck, where he could feel Nico’s warm breathing, it was getting so sensitive that Percy had to contain a shiver.

_What’s happening?_

But he’d felt that way before, and it was only the circumstances that confused him. He was turned on, that much was clear. Was it Nico’s proximity? He couldn’t help but remember his jerking off fantasy and how it had included a Nico-lookalike. Warmth was pooling in Percy’s stomach, sinking lower, and his cheeks burned with embarrassment. He didn’t want the man to know that they were there, but his current situation was becoming untenable. 

“I know you’re here.”

Percy was so twitchy that he almost jumped out of his skin. The man was sitting at the table, facing the window and turning his back on them, but he wasn’t talking on the phone. There was no one that he could be talking to except them. 

The man sighed. “Whoever you are, just come out. If you don’t mean me any harm then I won’t hurt you either.”

Nico’s arm released Percy, who almost fell forward, his legs buckling under him. He took a few stumbling steps and could tell that he wasn’t protected by the shadows anymore at how much brighter the light suddenly was. The man put his coffee mug down and twisted around to look at them. He looked at Percy, then at Nico, who was still half-covered in shadows.

“Oh, shadow manipulation,” the man said casually, as though he found people hiding in the corners of his home every day. “You must be a child of Hades. What’s your names, boys?”

It couldn’t hurt to be polite—after all, they were the ones in the wrong—but Percy still kept one hand buried in his pocket. “My name is Percy,” he said.

“Percy,” the man repeated thoughtfully. “I don’t keep up with the news much, but I feel like I’ve heard this name before.”

“Percy Jackson,” Percy said. He still felt a little jittery from the state of arousal he’d experienced a moment before, and it was surreal to be having a conversation with a stranger who, by all right, should have been throwing them out. “I’m a son of Poseidon.”

“I’m Nico di Angelo,” Nico said.

“A son of Poseidon and a son of Hades. Oh, I see.”

“And we don’t need to ask _your_ name, I suppose,” Nico said.

Percy cast him a surprised look. “We don’t?”

“I’ve just figured it out,” Nico said, then paused for effect. You had to give him that: he had a good sense of drama. “It’s the flowers that clued me in. They’re anemones. But the strangest part is that some of those anemones shouldn’t be blooming until the fall. But they’re your flowers, aren’t they? Because you’re Adonis.”

“ _What?_ ” Percy exclaimed. “But isn’t he supposed to be _dead_? We’ve spent the past few weeks trying to figure out his murder!”

Percy was apparently the only one who was shocked at that turn of event. The man—freaking _Adonis_ , who didn’t look dead at all—chuckled softly, as though savoring a good joke.

“You’re a smart one,” Adonis said. “Although I haven’t been called that in a very long time, I am indeed Adonis. And you two have been sent to solve my murder. I’ve been warned about you.”

“And they’ve done their job admirably,” said another voice.

This time Adonis looked startled. They all turned to the door, which framed an extraordinarily beautiful woman, dark wavy hair undulating in the breeze. She’d dressed simply in a flowery blouse and a blue skirt, as though she wanted to match her surroundings. 

“What are you doing here, Aphrodite?” Percy asked irritably. “How did you know where we were? _I_ don’t even know where we are!”

“Oh, I’ve been keeping tabs on you all along!” Aphrodite said with a self-satisfied smile. “I’ve followed your journey with great interest.”

“You used the bond to track us, didn’t you?” Nico said. 

“Well, that’s awesome,” Percy said bitingly. He remembered himself holding a bleeding Nico, alone in the Minute Man Park as night was falling. “We got almost killed a number of times and you didn’t lift a finger to help us!”

“I had complete faith in you two,” Aphrodite said smoothly, still smiling in a way that made Percy want to run his sword through her; which would be downright suicidal, so he forced himself to get a grip. “I knew you would get to the bottom of this and I haven’t been disappointed in the slightest. Adonis, my love, it has been a long, long time.”

Adonis had pushed back his chair and stood up, looking like he was about to jump through the window and run away. Percy couldn’t blame him, because although Aphrodite was still smiling, it didn’t look very friendly anymore. 

“Aphrodite,” Adonis said tightly. “You’re as beautiful as ever.”

Aphrodite’s smile widened a fraction, as if the compliment was mollifying her despite the circumstances. “You, on the other hand, have gotten so much older. But not as much as you should be. A god must have given you the gift of a longer life. Thanks to Percy and Nico’s investigation, I know that this god is Apollo.”

Adonis’ face betrayed nothing, but he wasn’t denying it. He looked at Aphrodite the way you looked at a snake, knowing it would leap and bite you if you diverted your eyes from it. 

“I have known for a while that something wasn’t right about your death,” Aphrodite said. She went to sit on the couch, artfully spreading her skirt over her crossed legs. “As I was holding you in my arms, life bleeding out of you, I could feel your heart beat. When my tears and your blood mixed and you changed into flowers, you were still alive. I’d never been able to forget that part, and when Eris, that silly goose, started hinting at the fact that she knew a secret about you, I suddenly knew that you hadn’t died that day. The only thing I didn’t know was who had helped you. So, tell me that story. I want to hear it. And sit down, for Olympus’ sake. My neck is getting a crick, looking up at you.”

Adonis slowly sat back down on his chair. “Apollo tried to kill me, as a revenge for what you did to his son.”

“Come on, don’t take that tone with me,” Aphrodite said. “ _You_ were outraged too. He’d hidden among the rocks, spying on us like a peeping tom! That was just rude. You know I can’t stand rudeness.”

“I have to assume that Apollo felt differently about the matter. When he saw me, he couldn’t go through with it, though.” Adonis smiled in a slightly self-depreciating way. “You always said that my beauty could move rocks to tears. It moved Apollo, in any case. We became lovers.”

“Oh, that little conniving—”

“Apollo hadn’t renounced his revenge against you, though. He just didn’t want me to die for it anymore. So he did something simple, but devasting: he told me the truth about the circumstances of my birth.”

Adonis paused, looking at Aphrodite as though he wanted to absorb her reaction. She’d stopped smiling and had gotten very still, hands curled over her knees. “My dear heart,” she said, “you have to know that—”

“Spare me your excuses,” Adonis said, interrupting the goddess for the second time. The man must have had balls made of titanium. “I’ve had many centuries to think about it, and I’m not mad at you anymore. I was at the time, though. Enough to go through with Apollo’s plan to fake my death.”

For a long moment, neither Aphrodite nor Adonis said anything. Percy glanced at Nico, trying to convey to him the question of whether they should try to get out of here. Nico frowned in confusion, looking like he couldn’t understand the meaning of Percy’s wriggly eyebrows. Percy waved his hand in a ‘ _never mind_ ’ kind of gesture; if Aphrodite could track them through the bond, it would be useless to run away. 

“So Apollo has been keeping you in this little love nest for all those years,” Aphrodite said wryly. “How charming. Quaint, in a rustic kind of way.”

“Apollo and I haven’t been lovers in centuries. I refused immortality and Apollo likes them young. Just like you, my love,” Adonis added when Aphrodite scoffed. “I always knew that you would get tired of me once I lost my looks. At least Apollo has protected me long after he stopped desiring me.”

The entrance door sprung open before Aphrodite could reply and Apollo barged in. He wore a purple t-shirt that said, ‘ _Blazing Amazing!_ ’ and although not a hair was amiss on his golden head, his expression was panicked and he started saying, “Okay, what’s going—” before he saw who was in the room. 

“Aw, man,” he moaned, arms flopping to his sides. “How in Hades did you get here?”

It was unclear whether he was talking to Percy and Nico or to Aphrodite, but Percy replied anyway, “We kind of got tired of you trying to _kill us_.”

Apollo had the good grace to look sheepish. “I was just trying to slow you down and make you give up,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “Don’t take it personally.”

Those last words made Percy see red— _I’ll show you how personal I can get!_ —but Aphrodite talked before he could. “Fancy meeting you here, Apollo! I’m guessing that you put some alarm system on this cabin, and that Adonis was trying to waste time until you got here.”

“Aphrodite,” Apollo said in the coldest voice Percy had ever heard him use. “Your little investigation has taken up a _lot_ of my time. I was trying to compose this haiku, and—"

“ _Wasting your time!_ ” Inside the cabin, the temperature went up until rivulets of sweat were running down Percy’s face. “Centuries, _millennia_ that I spent mourning my love—”

“Oh yeah,” replied Apollo, “and you loved him so much that you lied to him all his life! Lovers are as many toys to you, Aphrodite. At least one of them got away.”

“Because you’re so much better!”

The heat reached levels that made Percy feel faint. Nico and Adonis didn’t look like they were faring much better, and the light also dimmed to the point where Percy could barely see anything. The atmosphere was sizzling with hostility—literally, as little flashes of lightning sparked in the space between Apollo and Aphrodite. If the gods decided to have it out in the cabin, then Percy, Nico and maybe Adonis too would be toast. Apollo and Aphrodite might feel bad about it afterward, but that wouldn’t make them any less dead. 

“If I may interrupt you,” Percy said, stepping between the two angry gods, his blood roaring in his ears like at a rock concert. He heard Nico whisper, ‘ _Percy, what are you doing?’_ but he ignored him. Anger spurred him on, anger at the fact that Apollo and Aphrodite didn’t give a damn if Percy and Nico were caught in the crossfire of their interpersonal drama—to think that Nico had almost died during that stupid investigation! “I’m not really sure what you two are mad about. Aphrodite, aren’t you glad that the man you loved is alive?”

“I’m not _glad_ to learn that he and Apollo played me for a fool!”

“It looks like Adonis didn’t know how to break up with you,” Percy said. “And let me tell you, this isn’t a very good look for the goddess of love.”

Aphrodite’s narrowed eyes flashed with anger—again, _literally_. “I was feeling very warmly toward you for your good work, Percy Jackson. But you’re using up my good will with alarming speed.”

“I mean,” Percy said, wondering if this was how people who walked down the gangplank felt in pirate stories, “imagine what people would think if they knew the truth? Adonis dying and turning into a flower is a nice ending to your love story. Why would anyone need to know that this isn’t what happened? And you, Apollo, you don’t really want your father to have a reason to get mad at you again, do you?”

“Ah, uh,” Apollo said. Light seeped back into the cabin. “I’d rather not, yeah.”

“What are you suggesting, Percy?” Aphrodite said. “That I should let them get away with it?”

“I say that you should preserve your reputation above anything else. As Aphrodite, you don’t just represent yourself, you’re also the image that people have of Love with a capital L. Knowing that your love story with Adonis took such a pathetic turn—” Aphrodite’s mouth twisted and Percy’s heart missed a beat. “—well, that would tarnish the romance. This happened all so long ago. Adonis lives as a recluse. Apollo and he aren’t even lovers anymore. Why muddle the waters?”

“What do you suggest we do about Persephone, though? Demeter will wreak havoc with summer until she gets her daughter back.”

“Well, uh, I guess we could tell her—not the whole story, of course! But that Adonis is alive, but, um, I don’t know, lost his memory? Or something like that? That he didn’t actually die that day but was saved by Apollo while you were so wrecked with grief that you didn’t realize it. Or any spin that you’d like to put on it, I guess. Just tell her enough that she accepts to go back to Olympus with her mother.”

Aphrodite looked at Percy, then at Nico, a calculating expression on her face. “And the two of you wouldn’t say anything?”

“Cross my heart and everything,” Percy said.

“Swear it on the River Styx,” the goddess ordered. 

Percy and Nico shared a look, but Aphrodite wasn’t giving them much of a choice, so they both swore on the River Styx that they would keep the truth about Adonis to themselves. 

“Apollo, do you agree to this?” Aphrodite asked.

“Mutually assured destruction? I love it,” Apollo said.

Aphrodite walked up to Adonis. Her expression, which had been unusually severe, softened considerably and she lifted a hand to cup his face.

“My feelings for you were real, you know,” she said, her thumb tracing a line on the apple of his cheek. 

“I know,” Adonis said.

“You still look very lovely.”

“But I’m much too old for you, now,” he told her firmly.

She sighed and let her hand drop to her side. “Indeed,” she said. “Apollo, let’s get out of here. I think we have intruded enough.”

“Uh, okay,” Apollo said, looking a bit confused about the way the situation had flipped around. “I need to finish this haiku, anyway. Um,” he said, turning to Percy and Nico, “no hard feelings for the—”

“The killing attempts?” Percy finished wryly. 

“They were not—Okay,” Apollo said, sounded frustrated. “Be like that.”

“I’m curious, though. How did you rope Ares into your plan to protect Adonis?”

“Oh, Ares didn’t know about Adonis! He just wanted to mess with you, I think. And Eris is always up for a tiff.”

“Yeah,” Percy said, feeling very tired. “That sounds just like them.”

“Well,” Apollo said to Adonis, “see you later.”

“I’d rather you never saw each other again,” Aphrodite said in an even voice. She gave Apollo a shrewd look. “Mutually assured destruction, remember? I wonder which of us has the most to lose.”

“And we really don’t need to find out,” Apollo said hurriedly. “Farewell, then, Adonis.”

“Farewell,” Adonis said, his expression gentle but devoid of sadness. “Good luck with your haiku.”

“Thank you! Haikus are a lot harder than people think, but I believe I’m getting the hang of it.”

As Apollo and Aphrodite turned toward the door, apparently about to leave the place the mundane way, Percy called Aphrodite back, “Hey, wait! What about the bond between me and Nico? Weren’t you supposed to take it away if we completed the mission?”

“I never said that,” Aphrodite said. “You always had the possibility to dissolve the bond on your own. It’s actually very simple.”

“What? But how—”

“Nico knows. He only has to speak his heart.” Aphrodite wriggled her fingers at them. “Good bye, boys, and thank you for your service. Good luck with what comes next.”

They left, and Percy and Nico looked at each other.

“You’re a mad man,” Nico murmured, shaking his head. “You’re off your rockers.”

“What did Aphrodite mean?” Percy asked. His legs felt rubbery but the day wasn’t over yet. “Do you know something that I don’t about that bond?”

Nico sighed and rubbed his face. “I don’t _know_ anything. But I’ve suspected for a while that Aphrodite wanted something from me.”

“What is it?” Percy insisted.

Nico ignored him and turned to Adonis. “Sorry about the intrusion,” he said.

“This is quite all right,” Adonis said, then burst out laughing. “Sorry,” he said, obviously struggling to control his hilarity. He threw a hand over his eyes. “I always knew that some kind of confrontation would happen one day, but I didn’t expect it to find such a peaceful resolution. Your friend is right, Percy Jackson. You _are_ a mad man.”

“A simple ‘thank you’ would be enough,” Percy grumbled.

Adonis breathed and exhaled. “Thank you,” he said.

“What are you going to do?” Nico asked. “Are you confined to this place?”

“I’m not,” Adonis said. “Not in any magical sense, anyway. I will continue living my life as I did before, I suppose. I’ve found my peace here.”

“That’s nice,” Percy said. “But, Nico, can we go back to talking about—”

“Let’s go outside,” Nico said curtly. 

They said goodbye to Adonis and went out of the cabin. Nico was walking ahead, almost as though he were hoping to lose Percy, except that he stopped abruptly in the middle of the clearing. 

“Nico?” Percy said uncertainly.

“There’s something,” Nico said, and then paused. He hadn’t turned around and Percy could only see his back, which held so much tension that his shoulders were almost up to his ears. “Something I’ve hidden from you for years.”

“Uh, okay.” Percy’s heart had started to pound. Something momentous was about to happen, but he couldn’t gather his thoughts well enough to figure out what it was.

“I—I have—I’m—” Nico buried a hand in his dark mop of hair, swearing angrily under his breath. He turned around and said, spitting out the words like a challenge, “I love you.”

“You—” _What?_

Nico closed his eyes and sighed, his shoulders drooping a fraction. “I’ve always loved you, since before I even understood what being in love meant. Since that moment when you saved Bianca and I from the manticore. I don’t think I can help it.”

Percy’s mind was reeling, fragmented emotions and memories hitting him all at once. Nico, who Percy had always thought could barely stand him, was in fact—

He saw Nico, all of eleven years old, about to be sold out by Geryon to Luke Castellan. _‘Don’t do me any favors, Percy! I don’t want your help!’_

Nico at twelve, after he’d rescued Percy from his father’s dungeon. _‘You mean you don’t trust me anymore.’_

At Camp Jupiter, when Percy had lost all memory of his past and Nico had pretended he didn’t know him. _‘Pleased to meet you. I’m Nico di Angelo.’_

Leaning over the abyss to Tartarus, thrusting a hand out to Percy. _‘Lead them there! Promise me!’ - ‘I—I will.’_

And more recently, when Percy had been crying over Annabeth like a baby, clutching Nico’s t-shirt. _‘You’re not pathetic. You couldn’t be further from pathetic.’_

Nico was _in love_ with him. 

In present time, Nico opened his eyes and looked at Percy, his face hard and closed off. He walked toward Percy, who was torn between moving backward and meeting him halfway, the indecision bolting him on the spot. Nico stopped a few inches from him, his eyes detailing Percy’s face as though he was trying to memorize it. His expression thawed by increments, until the hint of a smile curved his mouth. He leaned toward Percy, who swallowed slowly, feeling the spit go down his throat. 

The soft press of Nico’s chafed lips against his trapped all the breath in Percy’s chest. A hand brushed the short hair on the nape of his neck. Nico pulled away and said, “There. I think that should do it.”

He’d moved away before Percy had enough presence of mind to try to hold him back. Trees were casting long shadows over the grass and Nico stepped into them. 

“Nico,” Percy said, “wait—”

He raised a hand, but the shadow had already engulfed Nico whole. He was gone, and Percy was the idiot who’d let him go.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be aware that this chapter contains smut - a warning or an incentive, depending on your tastes. :)

Nico landed in Camp Jupiter. He hadn’t really had any conscious destination in mind when he’d shadow-traveled—he hadn’t even known if it would work—but he wasn’t surprised that his subconscious had chosen the Roman camp. This was one of the safest places to him, beside the Underworld, and he didn’t want to deal with his father right now.

He looked around him instinctively, but Percy wasn’t there. Nico had shadow-traveled without him, which meant that Nico’s declaration had had the desired effect. The bond was broken. Percy could now do as he pleased. Nico lifted a hand and pressed his fingertips against his lips. He’d kissed Percy. He’d _kissed_ him, and it had felt both too short and too long. He could see it in his mind as if it were happening again: Percy’s eyes opened wide, and on his face a look of shock and of the gods knew what else. Betrayal? Horror? Not that it mattered now. What was done, was done.

Nico’s feet had carried him without his consent up to the Fifth Cohort barracks. He realized that he was looking for Hazel only when he saw her, giving other campers instructions in her Roman soldier get-up. 

“Any questions?” she was saying. “Then—”

One of the campers said something to her, pointing at Nico. Hazel turned around, saw Nico, her eyes widening, and said, “Dakota, will you take over, please?”

She ran up to Nico, then slowed down as she got closer. “Nico? Are you—will you come inside for a second?”

Nico knew that tone; it was the one you used when you found a wounded feral cat and were trying to coax it inside with a cup of milk. _I’m not wounded_ , he wanted to tell Hazel, but his vocal chords wouldn’t work properly. 

He followed her inside and she sat him on one of the bunk beds. She asked if he wanted something to drink, and when he said no, she sat on one of the other beds, facing him. 

“Tell me what happened,” she said. “I got an I-M from Annabeth, so I know everything you’ve told her. Did you confront Apollo? Where’s Percy? He isn’t—”

Percy’s name made Nico flinch, but he forced himself to reassure Hazel, “Percy’s fine. As to what happened… I can’t tell you. Percy and I made a promise on the River Styx. But it’s not bad, I swear. Really, it turned out much better than we could have hoped. And the bond is broken, now. Percy is free.”

“All right,” Hazel said. “Then explain to me why you look like you walked over your own grave.”

 _Walked over your own grave_. Nico started chuckling and couldn’t stop. He must have looked crazy, and he could see that Hazel was growing more concerned, but it was hard to make himself care. He felt like he was beyond caring about anything.

“Nico? Nico, what’s wrong?”

 _Stop_ , he ordered himself. _Stop giggling like a lunatic_. Hazel was worried about him. She was his sister, and she loved him, and she wanted to know what was wrong with him so she could help. There wasn’t really anything she could do, but he owed the truth to her.

“Sorry,” he said. He pressed a hand against his mouth and swallowed back another chuckle. “I’m sorry I’m such a crappy brother.”

“Don’t say that. You’re—”

“No, please, listen to me. There’s something important about myself that I never told you. I guess I was afraid—But it was stupid. Being afraid has never protected anyone.”

“What is it?” Hazel asked softly.

“I’m—” He looked in her big, loving golden eyes. “I’m gay. That’s it. It sounds like nothing when I say it like that, doesn’t it? But I’ve struggled with it so hard, Hazel. Every step of the way.”

“Oh, Nico,” Hazel said, lurching toward him, her chain mail jingling with the movement. “You know I—”

“There’s something else,” Nico said, stopping her with a hand. “I realized I was gay because I’ve had feelings for someone for a long, long time. And I just told him. Gods, I can’t even believe that I _told_ him.”

“Is it Percy?” Hazel asked. 

“Rather obvious in hindsight, I suppose,” Nico said with a bitter half-smile. “Yes, it’s Percy.”

“What did he say?”

“I—I don’t know. I didn’t wait for his response, I just left, I didn’t want to see—”

“Then how do you know that he would’ve rejected you? He and Annabeth broke up, so maybe—”

“ _No!_ ” Nico said, almost shouting, then winced. “I’m sorry, but I—I don’t want to think about it anymore. I’m just tired. I don’t want to talk about him anymore.”

“Okay,” Hazel said, throwing her arms around him. Nico let her pull him to her chest, even though the chain mail made the hug rather uncomfortable. “It’s all right, Nico. We don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to. We don’t have to talk at all.”

“I love him _so much_ ,” Nico whispered brokenly into her shoulder. Tears spilled from his eyes and ran down his cheeks, wetting the collar of Hazel’s purple t-shirt. “But I’m so tired. I don’t want to feel like that anymore.”

“Sshh, it’s okay,” she said, stroking his hair.

“I’ll go away for a while,” Nico said, pushing away from his sister and rubbing his eyes angrily. “I might not be in touch, but you don’t have to worry about me.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Hazel said, clinging to his arms. “Why do you have to go? And it’s idiotic to tell me not to worry. It doesn’t work like that! I can’t switch it off at will.”

“But I—”

“Stay for a little while. You’re exhausted and heart-broken. Let yourself rest.”

“Father might need me,” Nico protested.

“Father doesn’t register passing time the same way we do. I bet that when you go back to him he’ll feel like you’ve just left.”

Nico let Hazel convince him to stay at Camp Jupiter for a few days. He could tell that Reyna had guessed something had happened with Percy, but she never forced him to talk about it. Hazel and Frank showered him with solicitude, which Nico tolerated for three whole days before it got too much for him. He appreciated the fact that they cared, and he was relieved that he’d finally told his secret to Hazel and that she was still looking at him the same, but being the focus of too much attention made him feel claustrophobic.

He went back to the Underworld, and Hades didn’t chide him for being gone too long. Persephone had joined her mother on Olympus after a meeting with Aphrodite and all was well with summer again. Which didn’t change anything when you were down in the Underworld, where the sun never shined. 

“What did you find out, that boy Jackson and you?” Hades asked him one day over breakfast, in idle curiosity. 

“We convinced Aphrodite to make up with Persephone,” Nico said. He’d prepared this lie well in advance. “Adonis’ death is still a mystery, but maybe it’s better that way.”

“I agree. So much fuss made over a mere mortal,” Hades said. He gave his son a long, careful look, his face as dark as an incipient storm. “I see that Aphrodite has kept her word and lifted that bond off you.”

“Yes,” Nico said.

“Good. She would’ve heard from me if she hadn’t.” The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees from the threat.

Nico couldn’t help a smile. “I know, Father.”

He didn’t lack things to do. There were always monsters to fight, escaped creatures from the Underworld to drag back down, wannabe necromancers to give a lesson to—Hades didn’t like for anyone but himself and his children to have dominion over the dead. He wished he could have said that he was so busy he didn’t think much about Percy, but this wasn’t true. He dreamed about him almost every night. Some of the dreams—okay, a lot of them—were of a sexual nature, but sometimes he just dreamed of Percy and him chatting easily like old friends. In fights, the thought sometimes went through his mind that he had to be careful not to stray too far from Percy. He’d spent a lot of time alone in his life, but only after Bianca’s death had he ever felt that devastatingly lonely.

He had no idea how things were going at Camp Half-Blood. Maybe Percy and Annabeth had gotten back together, or maybe they hadn’t. Jason had tried to I-M him, but Nico had used shadows to disrupt the rainbow. The only person he would accept I-Ms from was Hazel, and she knew better than to try and talk to him about Percy. It was better that way, he often told himself; in time, the pain would pass, or at least it would abate. He couldn’t remain stupidly in love with Percy forever, right? There would be an end to his heartache.

In the meantime, he had zombies’ asses to kick. 

\---

When the shock of Nico’s declaration and subsequent kiss had passed, Percy realized that Nico’s dramatic exit had left him stranded. He had to go back inside the cabin to ask Adonis where they were. The man poured him coffee and let him use his landline when Percy failed to get reception with Rachel’s cellphone. He acted very sympathetically, which made Percy wonder if he’d looked through his window and watched the whole scene unfold. 

Percy found out that the cabin was in Maine. Adonis graciously let him sleep on the couch that night, and the next day Annabeth and Rachel came to pick him up, with Rachel behind the wheel of a bright green, old-fashioned Beetle. The girls asked him a lot of questions about what had happened, but Percy couldn’t tell them much. He mentioned his oath on the River Styx to excuse the fact that he couldn’t tell them the conclusion of Adonis’ murder case, and was very vague about his last interaction with Nico. He wasn’t ready to tell anyone about Nico being in love with him and kissing him, especially not Annabeth. 

At camp, he had to weather many similar questions. People mostly backed off when he mentioned that he’d sworn secrecy on the River Styx, but Jason, Chiron and Will Solace all asked after Nico, and it was much harder to know what to say to them. What he needed was some time to himself so he could _think_ , and he spent most of the following days doing that, away from anyone else. He swam in the lake, mostly, or sat at the edge of it and looked at the way its smooth surface reflected the sky. He’d been surprised at Nico’s confession because it led him to rethink every interaction he’d had with the guy in the past. He was over his surprise, now, and what he needed was to figure out was what else he felt about it. Because he felt _something_ ; he knew at least this much.

He replayed the memory of Nico walking up to him and kissing him many times. The exact way Nico’s hair had fallen in his eyes, the rueful slant of his smile, the pattern of freckles on his nose were all etched in his memory. He hadn’t felt disgust when Nico had pressed his mouth to his. Neither had he felt indifference. Only moments before, when they were hiding from Adonis in the shadows, he’d definitely been aroused. And, well, he certainly got off on danger, just a little bit, but the situation as a whole hadn’t been the exciting kind of danger. So Nico had been the thing that had turned him on. Sometimes Percy remembered that moment, or Nico’s kiss, and felt a low pulse of arousal. 

Did that make him bisexual, then? He hadn’t ever given much of a thought about being straight. There’d been Annabeth for a very long time, and Rachel for a little while, before Annabeth and he started dating. He’d been into them, there was no doubt about it, and being a boy who liked girls felt like a no-brainer. If he were one of those guys who felt differently, like Nico, then wouldn’t he have realized it earlier? 

Skipping stones at the lake, Percy spent hours thinking about this, examining his childhood and teenage years. As he thought it over, the memories of Luke Castellan and of how much he’d worshipped the guy that first summer at camp came to the surface. He’d spent a lot of time watching Luke—and, well, Luke was an older guy who was cool, and he was a great swordsman, so it made sense that Percy would need to watch him to be able to pick up on his technique. But he’d also been good-looking, and Percy remembered how much he’d liked just watching him, even if Luke wasn’t doing anything with a sword. Of course, it hadn’t lasted long before Luke betrayed them and then all Percy could feel about him was intense anger. Was it possible that he’d had a crush on Luke at the time? That all along, he hadn’t been so straight, after all?

Percy managed thirteen ricochets with his stone without using his powers at all. He was giving himself a moment to savor his accomplishment, when Jason came and sat down next to him.

“Drachma for your thoughts?” he said.

Percy snorted. “I don’t think they’re worth that much,” he said.

“Okay,” Jason said. “Tell me, is broody Percy here to stay? I can’t figure out what this is about. It’s giving me a different vibe than when you were moping about Annabeth.”

Percy made a face at him and sent a little wave lap at his shoes in retaliation. “I’m over breaking up with Annabeth,” he said.

“You’re a dick,” Jason complained, taking off his wet shoes. “Okay, so if you’re over her then what’s wrong now? Is it about the mysterious resolution of your quest?”

“No.”

“Did something happen with Nico?” Percy whipped his head at him. “Touché?”

Percy considered Jason for a moment. He was a good friend, who Percy often got a little too competitive with, but who he knew he could rely on. Jason was also Nico’s friend, which was no small feat. 

“Did you know that Nico was in love with me?” he asked.

Jason blinked, but his face betrayed nothing else. “What makes you think that?”

“Because he told me. And, uh, kissed me. This was apparently the condition for our bond to break.”

“Okay,” Jason said. “What did you do after that?”

“He didn’t give me an opportunity to do much. He shadow-traveled out of there and left me stranded at—” Percy felt the pull of his promise on the River Styx and let his sentence die there.

“He shadow-traveled,” Jason said. He shook his head, huffing a laugh. “Of course he did. How very Nico of him. How do you feel about it, then?”

“I, uh. That’s the thing. I didn’t exactly dislike it.”

“But did you _like_ it?”

Percy hoped the heat in his cheeks didn’t translate into a noticeable blush. “I think so. But I don’t know if this is just, I don’t know, lust, or curiosity, or something else. I want to figure it out before I try to find Nico and sit him down for a talk. I don’t want to lead him on. It looks like this is just a raw topic for him.”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “Everything is raw with Nico. Let me ask you something else: do you miss him?”

“Well, yes.” Often Percy turned around, a comment on his lips for Nico, only to remember that he wasn’t there. “We’ve spent a lot of time together, lately. It makes sense that I would miss him.”

“I guess so. If he were there, what would you do?”

Percy tried to picture Nico standing in front of him, looking at him with his guarded expression, dressed all in black, his huge sword hanging at his side. “I think I’d kiss him,” he said after thinking about it for a moment. “And then I’d punch him. You know, for balance.”

Jason chuckled. “That’s fair. Well, Percy, you could ask someone from the Aphrodite cabin for a second opinion, but I definitely think that you have feelings for him.”

“Yeah,” Percy said. He’d mulled it over long enough that it didn’t come as a surprise, but it still felt weird to hear someone else say it out loud.

“What are you going to do?”

“Try to find him so we can talk.”

“I’ve tried to I-M him, but he refused the call. I don’t think you’ll have better luck. You’re probably the last person he wants to talk to.”

“I guessed that much. I have an idea to fish him out. But before that… Before that, I think I need to talk with Annabeth.”

Percy didn’t try to seek Annabeth out until the next day. He waited for her outside of the amphitheater, where she was giving a lecture on architecture in Ancient Greece. She smiled at him when she saw him and he smiled back easily. They hadn’t talked much since his return, but this was mainly because he hadn’t talked much to anybody. The few interactions they’d had had been relaxed, almost to the level of what they’d been before they broke up. She’d always been his main confidante. He couldn’t not tell her about this huge thing that was happening to him. 

“Hey,” he said. “Do you have a moment? I need to talk to you about something.”

“All right,” she said, though her expression cooled a little.

“It’s not about getting back together,” he said. “I know it’s not going to happen. I’ve accepted it.”

“Okay, then what is it about?”

“Walk with me?”

They followed the path down to the cabins, and Percy waited until there was no one in their immediate vicinity before he said, “I’ve been realizing lately that I have feelings for someone, and I wanted to tell you before you heard about it from anybody else. Well, if it turns out well, which is in no way guaranteed.”

“Someone?” Annabeth asked. He couldn’t tell from her voice or her expression how she felt about it.

“Yeah, and there’s more. That person is a guy. Turns out that I might be bi, after all? And I don’t want you to think that dating you turned me off girls or something.”

“That would be stupid,” Annabeth said in such a tone that Percy felt silly to have worried about it. “You don’t _make_ someone gay or bi. They are, or they aren’t.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Who is it, though? Is it someone I know?”

“Yeah, it’s… Well, no need to keep beating around the bush. It’s Nico.”

Annabeth’s eyebrows shot up comically. “Nico di Angelo?”

“The one and only. You know how we thought he had a crush on you? We slightly missed the mark on that one. He actually had a crush on me the whole time. And tortured himself over it at length, because he assumed that I could never feel the same.”

“But you do.”

“I do now, yeah.” To say it, especially to Annabeth, made his stomach flutter lightly. “This really took me by surprise. Keep that to yourself, by the way. I don’t think that Nico is comfortable with people knowing that he’s gay.”

“Of course,” Annabeth said, looking thoughtful. “Now that I know that, a lot of things actually make so much more sense.”

“Do they? Okay, maybe they do, but he sure had me confused for a while.”

“You’re easily confused, Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth said, flashing him a smile.

She hadn’t called him ‘Seaweed Brain’ in a long time and Percy felt himself grin widely, even as he pretended to be offended. “Oh, I see how it is. Back to calling me names. I’m so abused.”

“You poor thing,” she said, shoving at him.

“So, you’re not mad?”

“Mad?” She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked lovely as ever, but this didn’t pain Percy as it used to, nothing more than a quick, bittersweet pang. “I broke up with you. I don’t have a right to be mad about who you want to date now. I won’t lie, it feels a little weird. I don’t know that it would have been less weird if you’d fallen for a girl. But I’ll get used to it. I hope things work out between you and Nico.”

“That’s a whole other program. I certainly haven’t gone for the easy choice. I need to _find_ him, for one.”

“How are you going to do that?” Annabeth asked, quirking an eyebrow. “Oh, I know that face. You have an idea.”

“I sure do. He’s going to be _pissed_.”

\---

Pine trees and scattered rocks protected the little creek from people’s sights. He’d taken off his shoes and buried his toes in the sand, letting sea water lick his feet like a playful dog. Hands in his pockets, he breathed the marine air, drawing strength from the immense power of the Pacific Ocean in front of him. Reveling in a rare moment of feeling at peace with the world, he waited.

The shadow cast by one of the rocks rippled and Nico emerged from it, like stepping out of a pool of ink. He had his sword in his hand and looked battle-ready, his eyes examining every inch of the beach before they rested on Percy.

“You’re not in danger,” he said. “There’s no monster here.”

“Hello to you too, Nico,” Percy said breezily. “I’m sure glad to see you. Has it been two weeks already?”

“Hazel told me you needed help,” Nico said. He had yet to lower his sword. “You don’t look like you need help.”

Percy gave himself a moment to look Nico over. It’d only been two weeks since they’d last seen each other, but it felt like longer. He wore a black t-shirt showing a skull patterned with smaller skulls, and his pale narrow face was drawn with exhaustion, the black wings of his hair casting shadows over tired eyes. Nico’s expression was getting increasingly annoyed and Percy smiled, enjoying it. A flicker of heat at the pit of his stomach told him that he was also _enjoying_ it, but, hey, he’d always had a thing for people who got annoyed with him. 

“Well, Hazel lied. I told her to lie, and since she agreed with me that you were being an idiot about this she accepted to help. I’m flattered you think I’m worth a hand in a fight, even though I’m not worth a conversation.”

Red spots bloomed on Nico’s pale cheeks. He sheathed his sword, mumbling, “What’s there to say? If that’s all, I’ll be out of here.”

“Wait!” Percy called, cursing himself for having wasted time being flippant. If Nico left now, he’d have lost him forever. Nico wouldn’t be fooled twice by the same trick. “Styx, Nico, I think I’m owed a few words.”

Nico stilled. His whole body was rigid with tension, but at least he’d stopped moving toward the shadow. “A few words,” he said. “Okay. Let me hear them.”

“All right,” Percy said, getting as nervous as when he had to make a presentation for class. He didn’t feel like he had the upper hand on the situation anymore. “I can do a few words. Okay, um.” He wiped his hands on his jeans, feeling his mouth get so dry that his tongue stuck to the roof.

“If it starts with, ‘I’m flattered, but’, then I have no interest in hearing it,” Nico warned.

“No! Well, I _am_ flattered, but—there’s no ‘but.’ Like, I was surprised. Maybe I’m obtuse, but I had no idea you felt that way about me. I thought that you kind of hated me.”

“I did, sometimes,” Nico said, dark eyes trained on Percy as though he expected an attack.

“Gee, thank you. But we’re getting off tracks. When you shadow-traveled after dropping that bomb on me—and leaving me stranded with Adonis in _Maine_ , thanks a bunch—you didn’t give me time to figure out how I felt about it.”

“How you felt about it? I don’t understand,” Nico said, looking genuinely confused.

“When someone confesses to having feelings for you, then the question is, ‘do I feel the same?’”

“How could you feel the same? You like girls.”

“Some people like _both_ , Nico,” Percy said, rolling his eyes. “I thought about it a lot and you know what? I think that when I was younger I had a crush on Luke Castellan.”

“The guy who got possessed by Kronos?” Nico said, arching an eyebrow.

“Hey, he was awesome before Kronos screwed with his mind. And hot. Anyway, I’m getting off tracks again.”

Percy had been walking toward Nico as he talked, and Nico walked backward at the same time until his back hit the rock behind him. He didn’t look like he was readying for a fight anymore, but his expression was still mistrustful.

“What’s your point, Percy?” he said, his voice tight to the breaking point.

“That maybe I like you that way, too. That I want to see where this could take us, if you would stop running away for a minute.”

“You can’t mean that.”

“Oh, for the gods’ sake!” Percy exclaimed, exasperated. 

His hands clenched and unclenched impotently at his sides. His words were water and Nico was locked into a water-proof bubble. Everything Percy said slid over him and nothing seeped inside. Impulsively he reached out and Nico stiffened, as though anticipating a blow. Percy’s hand brushed the side of his face and slipped to the back of his head. His fingers gripped Nico’s hair and Nico looked back at him defiantly. _Can you put your money where your mouth is, Percy?_

Next thing he knew, Percy’s mouth was on Nico’s. He stepped closer, flushing their bodies with each other. Nico was rigid as a wooden board, so Percy relaxed his grip on his hair and moved his hand down until it cupped the back of Nico’s neck, trying to knead the tension out of it. He made his mouth soft, gentle, pinching Nico’s lower lip delicately until he felt Nico loosen up, his lips parting a fraction and letting a shuddering breath escape. It was easy to make the kiss bolder, deeper. He kissed to convince, hoping that if he didn’t believe his words at least Nico would believe _this_. Nico relaxed further and eventually started kissing back, moving his lips, and the tip of his fingers timidly grazed Percy’s side.

Percy slid his other hand over Nico’s chest. It was a reflex, born from many making out sessions where there would be boobs for him to touch. The lack of boobs was strange, but Nico made a sound that Percy guessed meant he should keep going, so he started rubbing circles. Every time Percy touched him somewhere new or changed the rhythm in his kissing, Nico made one of those little sounds that came from the back of his throat, not loud enough to count as a moan. When Percy pressed closer he felt the handle of Nico’s sword dig into his side, and then the shape of Nico’s hard dick against his hip. This threw him a bit—he wasn’t used to the feeling of another dick than his own in his making out time. It was flattering, too, because he could feel that Nico was fully hard, while Percy was only half-way there. Nico’s face and neck were flushed with red, his body now pliant in Percy’s hands, giving Percy the sense that Nico would let him do just about anything he wanted. This was how much Nico wanted him, and a flicker of uncertainty shot up Percy’s focus. It was a terrifying responsibility. How could he hope to live up to what Nico’s expectations must be after years of crushing?

He pulled away, trying to gather his thoughts and to stop his incipient freak out. Nico looked at him, biting his lower lip. His eyelashes were thick and Percy idly noticed that his eyes were a very dark shade of gray-brown. Percy’s heart thrummed in his chest. Nico’s hard-on was a burning line against him and he couldn’t keep his mind off it.

“I want to try something,” Nico said in a grim, resolute way. He licked his lips and Percy felt a hot spike of lust shoot through his entire body.

“Uh, okay.”

Nico pushed him away and then against the rock, harder than Percy had anticipated. He scraped his elbow against the grainy surface of the rock and had to lean back on it because his shaky legs wouldn’t hold him up. He was nervous, worried about what Nico wanted to do and excited at the same time.

Nico dropped to his knees on the sand and Percy said, “Oh, _shit_ ,” covering his face with both hands. This was going much faster than he’d expected. He’d only planned to have a conversation, not to have his first foray into gay sex!

But even if Percy had wanted to stop, his body wasn’t in the mood to cooperate. By the time Nico had opened his jeans and gotten Percy’s dick out, it was hard as nail and curving toward his stomach. Nico gave the hard dick a look of such serious focus that Percy almost laughed out loud, only stopping himself by biting the meaty part of a finger. If Nico thought that Percy was making fun of him he was liable to hurt a very precious part of his anatomy.

Nico circled his fingers around Percy’s dick and started to pump until the tip wept with pre-come. Percy bit on his tongue not to moan. Nico’s eyes flickered at him, as though checking on his reaction, then he gingerly wrapped his lips around the tip. He sucked on it a bit, then let it out of his mouth to try again, taking more of it inside. At this point Percy closed his eyes, throwing his head back—he’d unfortunately forgotten that there was rock behind him, and it hurt, but the pain was washed over by the pleasure of Nico blowing his dick.

_Nico is blowing me!_

Two months ago, this would have sounded like a bad joke. Nico was clumsy with it, sometimes taking too much and choking on it, sometimes forgetting to mind his teeth; the little flashes of pain should maybe have turned Percy off, but they kind of had the opposite effect. As Nico gained confidence he also started to get enthusiastic about his task, making obscene sounds that were probably completely involuntary, wrapping his tongue around the head of Percy’s cock, while Percy shivered and burned all over. When Percy opened his eyes and looked down, he saw that Nico had opened his own jeans and was jerking off with rough, rapid gestures, his dick red and wet, as though he was getting off on the blowjob as much as Percy did.

“Nico,” Percy said, then gasped. “I’m, I’m gonna come.”

Nico let his dick slip out of his mouth with a pop and got up in a fluid, graceful motion. Percy was transfixed by the sight of his hard dick jutting out of his open jeans. His mouth watered as he wondered how it would feel to suck on it, but he wasn’t quite ready for that part yet.

“Come here,” he said to Nico, extending an arm.

Nico’s lips were so red it looked like he’d painted them. They were wet with his spit when Percy kissed him again. Nico was more daring with his kiss this time, even a little frantic. His tongue licked Percy’s lips inexpertly and Percy opened his mouth, guiding him into a deep kiss. Nico’s hand fumbled to get around both of their dicks, jerking them off at the same time. It felt strange and good and overwhelming, and Percy’s face burned with fever, all of his mind focused on the inside of Nico’s mouth, on Nico’s calloused hand on his cock, on the cold metal from his ring. Nico stopped kissing him and buried his face in the crook of Percy’s neck.

“Percy,” he whispered. It felt like his eyelashes were wet, but Percy was too scattered to make sense of it just now. “Percy, Percy, _Percy_.”

Nico was the first to come, with a whole-body shudder, but he kept jerking Percy afterward until Percy came too, spilling on Nico’s fingers.

“Sorry,” Percy said, then felt stupid about it.

Nico wiped his hand on his t-shirt and didn’t say anything. He tucked his dick in and zipped his jeans back up, but left his belt unbuckled, which struck Percy as really hot for some reason. Nico dropped his ass down on the sand and Percy did the same, sitting down next to him. His heartbeat was only slowing down now and he still felt feverish, the sweat cooling on his skin. It was awfully tempting to take a swim in the ocean that was spread in front of him, but he was getting a lot of confusing signals from Nico and knew they had to talk it out before it spiraled out of control again.

How to start that conversation, though? _Was it as good for you as it was for me, honey?_

“Sorry about that,” Nico said, pointing at the red scratches on Percy’s elbow.

Percy had completely forgotten about it, but now that his attention had been called onto it the scratches stung a little. “Pff,” he said. “This is nothing.”

“I didn’t mean to be so—” Nico looked away.

“Assertive? Don’t worry. I’m into it. Granted, I hadn’t planned for sex this early into the relationship, but—”

“Relationship?” Nico turned to him, his eyes wide.

“Yeah,” Percy said, a realization dawning on him. “That’s what this is, right? Because I don’t put out that easily.”

“Well, how should I know?”

“What did you think we were doing, then?”

“I don’t know,” Nico said, looking down at where his fingers were digging furious grooves into the sand. “That you were curious, I guess. And I thought, well, if I have one shot at this—”

“Oh, gods, you’re _such_ an idiot.”

Nico looked up to glare. “I’m not!”

Percy smiled at him and drew him in for another kiss, one that held more fondness than desire. “No, you’re not,’ he said, his forehead pressing against Nico’s for a second. “I have a thing for smart people. But you’re an idiot about _this_.”

Nico looked stunned, either because of the kiss or the conversation. “What about Annabeth, though?”

“What about her? It’s been over with Annabeth for three months. She’ll always be my first love, and she remains my best friend, but she’s not my girlfriend anymore and that’s all right.”

“Are you sure you want to—to _date_ me? I’m not easy to deal with. I’m moody, prideful and bitter. I’m used to being on my own and to sometimes not talking to anyone for days.”

“Are you trying to talk me out of this? Because I’m not easy either. I screwed up my first relationship. I don’t know what I want to do with my life. I have moments when I wonder if I’m not ruined for a normal life, if being a war hero isn’t the only thing I’m good for. I sometimes chew with my mouth open and I drool in my sleep.”

“This isn’t actually a competition, Percy,” Nico said, narrowing his eyes. 

“Great, I’m glad that’s settled. We’re boyfriend and… boyfriend, I guess.”

“Use that word again and I’ll stab you in the gut with my sword. I think I’m owed one stab.”

“Ooo-kay, you don’t like the word ‘boyfriend.’ Duly noted. See how quickly I learn?”

“You’re an ass,” Nico said, looking at the ocean. His eyes reflected its tormented surface. “Did you bring me here in case we ended up fighting?”

“Maybe the ocean gets me hot,” Percy said, shrugging.

Nico flushed. Percy wanted to touch his cheek and feel the heat that had built up there. “You’re—you know what? That sounds about right,” Nico said. “It sounds a lot more likely than you being so insecure about your chances against me that you’d need to give yourself a boost. Right?”

Percy laughed. “You’re terrible. I think I like it. Oh, I forgot. There was something else I meant to do.”

“What is it?”

Percy punched him in the face, and then laughed at his outraged face so hard that it scared off a bunch of seagulls. Nico leaped at him in retaliation and they wrestled on the sand until it devolved into making out again, with Nico sprawled on top of Percy while Percy’s hands explored under his t-shirt. They were at it for a while, until Nico decided he had enough and pushed him away. Percy might have taken it the wrong way, but he was pretty sure that Nico was getting hard again and felt awkward about it. If he’d learned anything about Nico during their weeks as an investigative duo, it was that pushing him never ended well, so instead he decided to go for a swim. 

The water felt wonderful. It was always wonderful, but sea water was the best and the ocean’s power was a rush through his system. He was keyed up from Nico and what had just happened between them, too, and every time he resurfaced he couldn’t help glancing at the beach where Nico was sitting, leaning on his elbows and watching him. As he would have with Annabeth, Percy felt the urge to show off, wanting Nico to keep looking at him. There was no one else on the beach so he didn’t have to restrain himself much: he used the water the prop him up, then throw him back into the waves, made his own waves and glided over them, surfing without a board. Eventually, it didn’t feel enough to have Nico just watch him and he swam back to the shore.

“Hey,” he said, grinning broadly at Nico. Anyone else would have been dripping all over the sand, but Percy was already dry. “Nice day, huh?”

“Hey,” Nico said. He brushed hair off his eyes, squinting as though the sun blinded him. “Have you seen the guy who was playing with water like an overpowered toddler? I would avoid him if I were you.”

Percy pretended to pout. “Maybe this guy wanted to impress someone.”

“Someone with very bad taste, I assume.”

“Won’t you come in the water with me?” Percy asked, holding out an arm. “It feels great.”

Nico looked past Percy, casting the ocean a doubtful look. “Maybe to you. Water isn’t really my friend.”

“You’d be safe with me.”

“I’m not worried about being safe, but I don’t think it would be much fun for me.”

“It’d be fun if you were with me,” Percy cajoled. He dropped on his knees and shuffled closer to Nico. “Pretty please?”

Nico turned his head away. “I don’t have, like, a swimsuit or anything I could swim in.”

“Neither do I. Just strip to your underwear.”

Nico’s mouth pinched and Percy realized that he was embarrassed. Even after what they’d just done, Percy had never seen Nico without a shirt. The whole time that they were bound together, Nico had always gone to the bathroom to change. Was he feeling self-conscious about his body? Just when Percy was wondering if he should leave him be, Nico settled the matter by saying, “Fine. I’ll go with you.”

He took off his t-shirt, jeans, socks and boots, turning his back to Percy the whole time as if he needed the illusion of privacy to go through with it. 

“I’m ready,” he said when he was done, arms folding over his chest.

Percy’s eyes lingered on him for a few seconds, following the trail of dark hair that went down his stomach and disappeared behind the elastic band of his underwear. “Give me your hand,” he said and then led Nico into the ocean.

Nico in the water was like a cat, snarling each time a wave splashed in his face. He swam awkwardly, straining his neck to keep his head out of the water, with such terrible coordination between his arms and legs that it sometimes looked like he was flailing.

“You don’t have to make that face,” he said grouchily to Percy. “I know I suck at this.”

“I’ll teach you how to swim better,” Percy said. “But for the moment, just put your arms around my neck. I’ll swim for you.”

“What?”

“You trust me, right?”

Another wave plashed Nico and he coughed. His dark hair dripped in his eyes when he said, “Yes,” in such an unequivocal tone that Percy’s breath caught. 

“Right,” he said, hoping he wasn’t blushing. “Okay. So put your arms around me and don’t let go, okay? I’ll handle the rest.”

Nico linked his arms around Percy neck, draped over his back like a baby koala. Percy dove into the water, creating a bubble of oxygen around Nico’s head so he could breathe as well. He swam away from the beach, into deeper and darker water, where it was cool and calm and sunlight was fractured through the water. The seaweed undulated in slow motion, like long strands of hair drifting in the wind. There was no sound, but Percy could feel that the waters were brimming with sea life, their tiny minds brushing against his in bursts of adoration. He stopped swimming and shuffled Nico around until he was in his arms, gripping his shoulders. Percy savored the feeling of being able to hold Nico without him trying to get away. This was definitely something he could get used to.

“Do you like it?” Percy asked him.

The corner of Nico’s mouth twitched. “It’s okay, I guess,” he said. 

His floating hair formed a dark halo around his head. His eyes were fixed on Percy. He’d never looked at Percy for that long without breaking eye contact before, and the full burden of his attention was an intoxicating feeling. 

“Just okay?” Percy said.

“A little more than okay,” Nico said. “I like what I see.”

“Oh, yeah?”

Nothing was more romantic to Percy than an underwater kiss. He couldn’t be blamed for being unable to resist it, really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter! You may have noticed that the chapter count has gone up to 11 - that's because I screwed up when I counted my chapters and forgot to include the epilogue. So next week you get an epilogue! I also have an alternate scene from Nico's POV for the smutty parts of this chapter (since I hesitated on which POV to use for that part). If you'd like it, I can add that scene as a bonus when I post the epilogue next week. :)


	11. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here is the epilogue, as well as a little bonus: part of last chapter (including the sex scene) from Nico's point of view. Hope you enjoy it!

Leo didn’t really mind that Nico di Angelo had become a fixture at Camp Half-Blood. 

The guy had as much right to be there as any other demigod. A cabin for the children of Hades had stood empty for years, which seemed wasteful, so it was a good thing that it was now put to use. Nico didn’t take up much space. He didn’t talk a lot or try to draw attention to himself—not that he needed to, because he tended to get it whatever he did. It was the fact that he never wore the Camp Half-Blood’s orange t-shirt, preferring instead black ones adorned with a variation on the theme of skulls or skeletons. It was his creepy stares, his cryptic smiles, as though he already knew the way you would look fit inside your coffin and was quietly amused at the thought. Okay, so Nico bugged Leo a little—or a lot, maybe. It was more that their personalities clashed badly rather than anything Nico had done, and Leo was self-aware enough to know that. The point was, Nico would have been easy enough to ignore if most of Leo’s friends hadn’t been so taken with him for some mysterious reason.

It wasn’t mysterious in Hazel’s case, of course, since she was his sister, even though they were so different that the fact sometimes still confounded Leo; but then, a few of his own siblings didn’t resemble him much either. Hazel seemed to love Nico, and Leo could understand putting value in family. Percy had spent weeks in Nico’s constant presence, so it made a certain, Stockholm syndrome sort of sense that he would be used to him now. Leo was a bit more puzzled over Jason’s attachment to Nico. He could still remember, back when they were traveling on the _Argo II_ , that Jason was as creeped out by Nico as Leo himself was, until one day he suddenly started defending him out of the blue. It was even worse now, as Jason seemed to genuinely _like_ Nico, which sometimes made Leo feel like he’d missed a whole chapter along the way. Which he had, in fact, as he’d been making his way back to the US after freeing Calypso from her island—thoughts of Calypso still tended to creep up on him, but he tried not to dwell on them—but as far as he knew Nico had been away too during that time period. 

“It takes some effort, getting to know him,” Jason had said, when Leo had shared his perplexity with him, “but I promise it’s worth it.”

Percy, for his part, had reacted a lot more strongly to a joking comment about Nico being creepy. “What, just because he’s a son of Hades?” he’d said hotly. “That’s low, dude.”

“Well, you have to admit—” Leo had meant to list all the ways Nico was genuinely creepy, but something about the look on Percy’s face made him rethink it. “All right, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it, okay?”

He had to reiterate his apology a few more times before Percy looked truly appeased. It was the first thing that clued in Leo to the fact that something was going on that he didn’t know about. 

The second thing was Aphrodite’s dove.

It was never truly identified as _Aphrodite_ ’s dove, not exactly. They couldn’t even be sure that it was the same dove that had come to fetch Percy and Nico and led them to Aphrodite, although it did have similar pink feathers on its belly. Still, it was a dove, and it behaved like no bird Leo had ever seen, so it was a pretty safe conclusion. At least, the campers from Aphrodite’s cabin treated it as such any time it showed up, feeding it and cooing at it, and—or so Piper claimed—even sleeping with it in their beds for some of them. If the bird was actually sent by Aphrodite, then it wasn’t surprising that it would grant a lot of attention to Aphrodite’s children. What was confounding was the way it harassed Percy and Nico, who clearly didn’t enjoy its presence as much as the Aphrodite campers did.

“Gods damn it,” Percy swore under his breath the first time they saw the bird flit around camp. “What now?”

The bird didn’t appear to have a specific purpose. It seemed content to be coddled by the Aphrodite kids, and to bother Percy and Nico. It flew over their heads as they sparred in the arena, it perched on one of their shoulders as they sat next to each other at the campfire, on the edge of whatever table they were eating at in the dinner pavilion, and generally followed them around camp when they were together. Incidentally, this was how Leo realized that Percy and Nico were spending an awful amount of time with one another. Maybe Leo’s Stockholm syndrome joke wasn’t _just_ a joke. 

From the outside, it was pretty funny to watch Percy and Nico try to fend off the bird’s attentions. Aphrodite’s dove wasn’t intimidated by curse words in Greek or English, by objects being thrown at it, and wasn’t fazed much by having swords waved at it, even Nico’s sinister Stygian iron sword. Percy and Nico, however, didn’t look like they found the situation humorous at all. To be fair, they had good reasons to be mad at Aphrodite after the shady bond she’d put on them and the mission she’d sent them on—whose resolution Leo wasn’t completely clear on. 

One day, Nico had apparently enough. “It’s that bird again,” he said, and they all looked in the same direction he did. Aphrodite’s dove was tranquilly sauntering on the ground, stopping from time to time to pick at the grass.

“Hades, I’m so tired of it,” Percy said with a sigh.

“Let’s get a little radical,” Nico said somberly. They were sitting by the lake, and Leo saw the shadows cast by the trees that edged the water darken and stretch unnaturally.

“Nico, wait,” Percy said and grabbed Nico’s wrist.

Leo held his breath. The one thing he’d figured out about Nico di Angelo was that he didn’t like being touched—he’d discovered it the hard way when, trying to be friendly, he’d given the son of Hades a slap on the shoulder. He’d thought that Nico would chop off his hand at the wrist. It was safe to say that he’d never tried that particular move again. 

The explosion of violence that Leo had expected didn’t come, though. Nico gave Percy a cool look but didn’t try to disengage. 

“Don’t kill my mom’s bird, please,” Piper said. “She’ll be _really_ unhappy if you do.”

“Yeah, Nico,” Percy said. “Let’s not piss off the goddess of _love_ right now.”

He said it in a tone that sounded like it was meant to convey some added meaning. Whatever it was, it looked like Nico got it. He cast another dark look to the dove, but the shadows retracted to their normal size. 

“So, Percy,” Jason said, clearly trying to distract Percy and Nico from the dove’s presence, “what were you saying about dropping out from college? Are your parents really okay with that?”

“Last year was pretty miserable for me, school-wise, so my parents think it’s a good thing,” Percy said.

Leo glanced at Annabeth, but she didn’t look surprised or angry. Percy must have told her about it beforehand. Maybe dropping out from New Rome University was a way for Percy to get away from her, but Leo didn’t think so. They’d been getting along a lot better lately, to the point where an outsider would probably think them good friends with no prior romantic attachment. It made Leo a little wistful, sometimes, to see them being friendly and relaxed with each other, though he didn’t know whether it was because he wanted the same thing with Calypso or not. As if reading his mind, Piper addressed him a small, sympathetic smile. He smiled back, then resolutely shoved down all his melancholic thoughts. 

“What are you going to do, then?” he asked Percy.

“I intend to volunteer at the Long Island Aquarium to get some practical experience, then figure it out from there,” Percy said. “And do some odd jobs for money. I don’t want to become a burden for my parents; they have Estelle to think of.”

“Isn’t it a bit far from your parents’ place, though?” Leo said.

“Oh, I think I’ll just stay at camp,” Percy said nonchalantly, as if the thought had only occurred to him now, but he looked at Nico at the same time with what Leo thought was lingering insistence.

Nico returned his look with an unidentifiable one of his own, but what startled Leo was that he noticed then that Percy hadn’t let go of Nico’s wrist. They were sitting next to each other, which meant that their hands were partly hidden between their bodies, and they were so casual about it that by looking at them you wouldn’t think anything unusual was happening. _Uh oh, what’s_ that _about?_

Even knowing that this wasn’t any of his business, Leo was curious. He started to observe Percy and Nico more closely: they were, as Leo had noted before, rarely seen without each other these days. Percy didn’t behave with Nico very differently than he did with anyone else, except that he always sat more closely to him than Leo considered strictly friendly. Nico, now that Leo was on the lookout for it, was a lot more relaxed with Percy than with most people. He spoke more when Percy was there, smiled more, and his dark eyes rarely looked away from Percy for long. 

Still, none of this was conclusive evidence, and Leo had no one he could really talk to about it. He didn’t want to be laughed at, or told to mind his own business, and if he’d stumbled upon something that Percy and Nico didn’t want other people to know, then he didn’t want to be the one to ruin it for them. But his curiosity wouldn’t be curbed, so when he saw Percy drag Nico behind cabin two—Hera’s cabin, which was always empty—Leo couldn’t help creeping around the corner of the marble building, trying to overhear what they were talking about.

What he heard instead was the very distinctive sound of kissing.

This made Leo stop dead. He had only meant to eavesdrop for a bit, just enough to confirm his suspicions. And _this_ for sure did the trick, but it was a lot more intimate than what he’d wagered on. _Idiot,_ he thought to himself as his face burned with embarrassment. _You suspected that they were dating or something close to it, and you didn’t realize that one dragging the other behind a building meant that they wanted to make out?_

He stepped back, meaning to get away and leave them to it, but then he heard Nico’s cool voice say, “Someone’s here.”

Before Leo had the time to run off, Percy and Nico had emerged from behind the building. They were both a little flushed, if Leo needed additional evidence of what they’d been doing.

“Leo?” Percy said, furrowing his brow. “What are you doing here?”

“I—” He was seized by the urge to yell, ‘this isn’t what it looks like!’, except that it was exactly what it looked like.

“Were you following us?” Nico asked, quicker on the uptake.

“I… Sorry. I was just curious, there seemed to be something up with you two, and I—shouldn’t have done what I did. I realize that now. I’m really sorry.”

Percy and Nico shared a look, doing that silent conversation thing couples and close friends did. Deciding his fate, probably. 

“I won’t tell anyone,” Leo said hurriedly. “I swear it on the—”

“It’s fine,” Nico said, cutting him off. 

“It is?” Percy said, looking at him with an arched eyebrow.

“Yeah.” Nico sighed, combing his fingers through his hair. “I never meant to make this a big secret. I just didn’t want any attention while I was getting used to the situation.”

Percy snorted and gave Nico a fond look. It was a _very_ fond look, the sort Leo had seen him give Annabeth in the past. Leo didn’t really get it—he wasn’t into guys, or at least he didn’t think so, but if he were he couldn’t see himself be attracted to Nico I-summon-dead-people di Angelo. Someone that looked like Jason would probably be more his type. But, hey, there was no accounting for taste. 

“So, congratulations, I guess,” Leo said. “Does Annabeth know?”

“She does,” Percy said. “So does Jason.”

That last part made Leo frown. “Wait, Jason knows?”

“Yeah, I kind of confided in him when I was figuring stuff out,” Percy said. “Like Nico said, we didn’t mean to make it some super dark secret. We were just trying to be discreet.”

“Discreet,” Nico said. “Not a word I would have used to describe you.”

Percy laughed, and when he leaned into Nico’s space Leo turned away, giving them privacy. It had looked like Percy was going for a kiss on the cheek, but still. As he tried to focus on something else, Leo’s attention was caught by the sight of a white bird perched on the ledge of cabin two’s slanted roof. It was watching them with disturbingly acute intelligence.

“Hey, guys,” Leo said. “That freaking bird is looking at us.”

“I know we can’t kill it,” Nico said, “but please, _please_ , let me try to scare it away.”

“Oh, please do,” Leo said. “This bird is giving me the creeps.”

He regretted saying this immediately, because Nico’s method of scaring the bird away involved whirling shadows that disturbed Leo infinitely more than Aphrodite’s dove had. At least it worked: with a peeved squeak, the bird flew off from the roof and disappeared from view. 

“Thank you, Nico,” Leo said weakly. “Much appreciated. I definitely don’t feel sorry for that bird, now.”

Nico smiled, and for the first time Leo would have qualified that smile as a friendly one—everything being relative—of shared amusement, rather than a chilly one that reminded you that everyone dies one day. Which was, you know, progress.

They say curiosity killed the cat, so Leo was rather relieved that he’d survived his ill-advised need to know more about the nature of the relationship between Percy and Nico. If it helped him get on friendlier terms Nico, then it was a good thing, since Nico probably meant to stick around now that he was dating Percy. At the corner of his eye, Leo saw a flicker of what he imagined was Aphrodite’s dove flying around. 

He thought it wise not to mention it to Nico. There were things he didn’t need to see more than once.

\---

BONUS SCENE (Nico’s POV on the end of chapter 10)

It was a stroke of luck that Nico was topside when Hazel called him. Lack of sunlight meant that Iris Messages never reached the Underworld, and he hadn’t come up in days. He received the message when he’d just gotten himself coffee and was sitting down on the bank of a river—okay, it was the Concord River, and he was sitting next to the Old North Bridge. The ground was still damaged from their fight against the drakon, long brown grooves scarring the grass. It was more than a little sentimental of him to come back here, as well as a little messed up; he was pretty sure that making a pilgrimage to the place where the boy he loved had almost killed him didn’t say anything good about him. He’d already promised himself that he wouldn’t do it again and was almost confident he would be able to keep to it this time. 

The day was gray and stuffy, in perfect accordance with his mood. It was getting late and there weren’t many people around, which also suited him. When the rainbow streaked over the river, Nico almost dispelled it before he saw that Hazel was the one calling.

“Hey, Hazel,” he said, trying to smile.

“Nico, thank the god!” Hazel exclaimed. She sounded alarmed, which gave Nico an excuse to drop the attempt at cheerfulness.

“What’s wrong?” he asked in a low voice.

He was fairly certain that because of the Mist, the few other people that were hanging around couldn’t see the rainbow, but he didn’t want to draw attention by talking loudly to himself. 

“Percy needs help!” Hazel said in a shrill, panicked voice, and Nico winced.

“What happened?” he asked, hating how Percy’s mere name had the power to unsettle him. “Why can’t—”

“He was supposed to be fighting a sea serpent on the Pacific coast. He swung by Camp Jupiter before he went, and he said he would be back, but it’s been a day and I can’t reach him. He’s hours away from camp, so I’m afraid that by the time we get there—”

Nico swore under his breath. “Why did that idiot decide to tackle a sea serpent on his own?”

“I guess that he thought that with the power of the ocean… but we don’t have time for that. Will you help him? I know that you don’t want to see him, and I’m sorry to be asking you, but—”

“I’ll go,” Nico said, cutting her off. He’d spoken a little too sharply and tried to smile again. “It’s fine, Hazel. If he needs my help, then I’ll go. I can’t let him die, can I? Now, can you tell me where he is?”

While Hazel was giving him the pertinent information, Nico forced himself to breathe slowly to stop his incipient panic. If Percy had said that he would go back to Camp Jupiter, then he would have done so unless he was physically incapable of it. He must really be in trouble. Maybe he was already—

_No, he can’t be dead. I would have felt it._

After Hazel had disconnected the call Nico went to throw away his empty cup of coffee in a trash can and then focused on the what she had told him about the location. Since he didn’t know what he would find at his destination point, he unsheathed his sword before he grabbed for the shade of the trees that bordered the river. 

The roar of the ocean was the first thing that struck him as he stepped out of the shadow. He still thought he must have gotten the place wrong, because there was no other sound beside that one. He scanned his surroundings, his grip tightening on the handle of his sword. There was only one person on the beach, a boy who faced the ocean with his hands in his pockets. That boy looked awfully like—

Percy turned around, smiling. _Spirits in the Underworld. I can’t do this._

“There’s no monster here,” Nico said.

Percy greeted him cheerfully, as if the situation wasn’t wrong on every possible level. Nico barely listened to what he was saying, his mind reeling from the realization that his own sister had lied to him, had manufactured this trap with Percy so he could…. What did Percy want, anyway? What was left to say between them? Nico had already given him everything he had.

“I’m flattered you think I’m worth a hand in a fight, even though I’m not worth a conversation,” Percy said.

There was reproach in his voice and Nico’s face heated up. He needed to be out of here. If Percy managed to guilt him into a staying any longer, he was going to thoroughly embarrass himself. He didn’t want to know what Percy thought of his confession. What he wanted was to be able to ignore all the things that Percy made him feel, but he was aware that this was a losing battle. At the very least he didn’t have to stay here, watching Percy look at him with those eyes. 

He sheathed back his sword and turned away, already reaching with his mind for the blessed coolness of the shadow, when Percy called him back.

“Wait! Styx, Nico, I think I’m owed a few words.”

That made Nico freeze up. Not really the words but the tone Percy had used, serious and intent, as if it was genuinely important to him that he’d get to say his piece. A few minutes in Percy’s presence and Nico’s resolve was already weakening. _I’m so pathetic._

“A few words,” he said. “Okay. Let me hear them.”

When he turned around he was surprised at how nervous Percy acted, wiping his hands on his jeans and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He listened to Percy ramble, feeling more confused by the second. When Percy talked about having had a crush on Luke Castellan when he was younger, Nico’s mind started to spin madly with the implication. _Wait, he can’t mean that…. Can he?_

Percy walked toward him as he spoke, and Nico stepped back instinctively until the rock behind him meant that he couldn’t go any further. He got scared, suddenly, more scared than he could ever remember being—more than when he’d gotten lost in the Labyrinth, more than the first time he’d met his father, more than when he’d walked through Tartarus on his own. More than when he’d faced Cupid, even. He was scared that he understood what Percy meant and scared that he’d gotten it wrong at the same time. 

“What’s your point, Percy?” he asked, trying hard not to let his voice quiver. 

Seagulls squeaked over their heads. The ocean rumbled like a peal of thunder. Percy was looking at him in a way that Nico didn’t dare qualify; he was sure at least that Percy had never looked at him like that before and it made him feel hot all over.

“That maybe I like you that way, too,” Percy said. “That I want to see where this could take us, if you would stop running away for a minute.”

All the background details faded away. Nico couldn’t see anything but Percy, couldn’t hear anything but Percy’s voice. 

“You can’t mean that.”

“Oh, for the gods’ sake!”

Percy’s hand shot out and he grabbed Nico’s hair. The touch and the closeness instantly had Nico painfully turned on. He felt sick with shame at his body’s reaction and tense in anticipation of whatever Percy was going to do. Were they about to fight? Nico’s hands were numb and he wasn’t sure he could handle his sword.

What Percy did instead was kiss him.

Nico’s mind went blank. He hadn’t spent a lot of time imagining what kissing anyone might feel like, because it seemed like such a distant dream. Percy’s lips were soft and the pressure was gentle, making Nico’s own lips tingle. The heat he’d felt before traveled lower, and if he’d been turned on before, he was now so hard that it was becoming uncomfortable. Percy wouldn’t be able to miss it if he got closer, which he did, inexorably. His mouth moved over Nico’s, still gentle but also more insistent. The kiss was getting a little wet, and warm, too, physically warm. Nico’s head was swimming. _This is Percy kissing me. It’s really happening. Percy is kissing me._ He had nothing to compare it too, but it seemed unlikely that any other kiss could feel as wonderful. It was like a balloon was swelling inside his chest, making him feel light as air.

Percy touched his chest, rubbing through his t-shirt. At first Nico wanted to squirm away, the unexpected touch making him uneasy, but then it started to feel oddly pleasant. Under the fabric of his shirt his nipples had hardened and become more sensitive, and every time Percy’s hand stroke over them the friction caused a spark of pleasure. He’d never been particularly aware of his nipples before, but it was like Percy had flipped a switch to make his body behave in wild unpredictable ways, which was both scary and exhilarating. 

Percy suddenly pulled away and the distance helped Nico’s mind clear a little. He was harder than he’d ever been, his heart galloping in his chest, but he felt like he could think. What was going on here? Percy’s face was flushed, his green eyes gleaming and his hair tousled. Nico _wanted_ … he wanted so many things and he wanted them so badly that it threatened to burst out of him. His body felt too tight and too hot; he was coming apart at the seams and he feared he would never get himself back together. Of all the things he’d ever wanted, he hadn’t expected this one to come true. It still felt like a dream, and he knew that all dreams must come to an end, but he could make the most of it. He _should_ make the most of it. Percy looked hesitant, but he wasn’t pulling away any further. How much would he let Nico get away with?

“I want to try something,” Nico said, coming to a decision.

“Uh, okay.”

Nico got down on his knees. Merely getting into position was so suggestive that it made his dick twitch. He heard Percy utter a muffled curse, but he didn’t sound panicked or disgusted. He still wasn’t trying to get away. Nico’s fingers fumbled with Percy’s belt, shaking too much to manage easily this simple task. His pounding heart felt like it would crack a rib and the kneeling position was uncomfortable on his erection. He opened Percy’s jeans, and to see the bulge of a hard-on swelling in Percy’s underwear made his heart beat impossibly faster. He was relieved, too, because Percy couldn’t be hating this too much if he was hard too. Nico got the dick, which felt hot to the touch, out of Percy’s underwear and handled it carefully—he tended to be rough on himself, but he didn’t want to hurt Percy. He wanted to make him feel good. When Nico looked up, he saw that Percy was looking down at him, his eyes very dark. Even after Nico had lowered his eyes, he could still feel the burn of that look on him.

He didn’t know what he was doing and the uncertainty almost made him renounce his plan, but surely this couldn’t be too complicated. Tentatively, he put the tip of Percy’s dick in his mouth. The pre-come tasted salty, a little strange but not too bad. Nico shifted positions and tried to get more of the dick inside his mouth. He wasn’t sure how to articulate the urge he’d felt to try this, but once he started to get the hang of it he found that he enjoyed himself more than he could have hoped. The weight of the dick on his tongue, the way he could feel it twitch in his mouth, the sounds Percy made, even the taste. He _had_ to touch himself, so he opened his jeans one-handed and started jerking off, shuddering from how good it felt. When Percy warned that he was about to come, Nico had almost brought himself on the brink of an orgasm.

He didn’t want to stop so soon, though, so he stopped sucking Percy and got up. They kissed again and Nico melted into Percy’s embrace. They kissed with tongue this time, and Nico was sure that he was awful at it but he couldn’t make himself care. He circled his hand around their two hard dicks and jerked them off together, gratified when he felt Percy’s moan vibrate in his chest. Their dicks slipped against each other, the friction so much better than just Nico’s hand. Percy’s heart was beating under Nico’s palm. _I love you_ , Nico thought desperately. He felt a sob build up in his chest and hid his face in the crook of Percy’s neck to stave it. _I love you, I love you_. His orgasm hit him and it felt like he was breaking apart. 

He was completely numb afterwards. He jerked off Percy until he came too; that seemed like the polite thing to do. They sat together on the sand and an awkward silence settled in. Nico still felt like crying, which would utterly ruin the mood, but he wasn’t sure how you were supposed to behave after a casual hook-up. He should have known better; a few moments of pleasure weren’t worth how crushed he felt now. He saw that Percy’s elbow was scratched and was pretty sure he was responsible for it, even if he couldn’t remember what he’d done. He apologized, but Percy brushed him off. 

Nico said, “I didn’t mean to be so—” Out of control. It was like he’d temporarily lost his mind and was only recovering it now. Stark lucidity felt awful.

“Assertive?” Percy said. “Don’t worry. I’m into it. Granted, I hadn’t planned for sex this early into the relationship, but—”

 _Wait, what?_ If Percy had started sprouting words in another language, he wouldn’t have sounded more incomprehensible to Nico. 

“That’s what this is, right?” Percy said in that same foreign language. “Because I don’t put out that easily.”

Nico searched Percy’s face for signs he was joking but couldn’t find any. Had he missed something in Percy’s earlier rambling? 

“Well, how should I know?” he said.

“What did you think we were doing, then?”

“I don’t know,” Nico said. He felt very stupid and tried to cover for it by digging in the sand. The fear from earlier was back and it twisted his insides into knots. Could he really do this? Could he trust himself not to mess it up? “I thought you were curious, I guess? And I thought, well, if I have one shot at this—”

Percy called him an idiot and Nico snapped back instinctively, which only made Percy smile and kiss him again. The kiss was a quick peck on his lips, not lingering and sensual like before, but it still made Nico’s heart skip a beat. It seemed like the kind of kiss that people in a relationship would share, and that, more than Percy’s words, was what made the situation finally feel real to Nico. For whatever insane reason, Percy wanted to be with him. 

Jason had told him once that he had to take a risk and stop hiding. It was hard to live up to those words, but he could finally measure what he would miss out on if he didn’t take that chance. 

That afternoon on the beach was one of the most surreal in Nico’s bizarre life. They bickered for a bit, made out again, and Percy somehow managed to convince Nico to go swim with him under water. Even if they eventually crashed and burned as Nico feared they would, at least he would always be able to hold onto that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's it for this fic. Thank you so much to everyone who has kudo'd and commented on it!


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